Shadows of the Small: Darkness Falls
by LucienShadowMaster
Summary: Companion to Tournament of Souls. A cast of characters with a sad history encounters Lucien and discovers the forces behind their fate. No one could leave such a thing to rest and retain their humanity, so of course it is to be pursued.
1. Mechanical Mayhem

Shadows of the Small: Darkness Falls

Chapter 1 – Mechanical Mayhem

"Glorious Destinies bring you Glorious Funerals." – Mercedes Lackey, Winds of Fury 

Editor's Note: The long awaited companion story to Tournament of Souls: Darkness Falls. While technically you don't need to read them in any particular order, it is recommended that you read Tournament of Souls: Darkness Falls through at least chapter 13 before reading this. Updates for any given story may be less frequent, but overall updates should come at the usual rate. Also known as too slow. Oh, and since we know you are going to do this, you shouldn't confuse the author with the narrator in either story.

One more thing; the effect of one card has been changed. It will be appearing very frequently in this character's deck. So that isn't a mistake.

Author's Note: There is quite a bit of description, but it has been deemed necessary by me. It is the first chapter after all, and there is a lot that needs to be introduced.

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How am I supposed to start? I've been telling other people's stories for a little while now, yet I have no idea how to start my own. Perhaps I should start from the beginning.

I was born.

Not that far back then. My name ought to do the trick. My name is Timothy. I am usually known as Tim though this gets annoying during the holiday season. But then again, Tiny Tim isn't that much worse than Mammoth. Then again, no one calls me Mammoth. I'm too small. I'm also… well, I'd best tell you that after I tell you a bit about my life first. Because people aren't just born like me and my friends. It doesn't happen. Not yet at any rate.

I was about 7 at the time. Or some age close to that. Younger, older I don't know. It was children's visiting day at work; on a Sunday. Extraneous spouses or similar all talked in the waiting room which was placed on the top floor along with the few offices required to keep the place up and running.

I'm told that both my mother and my father worked at the same textile manufacturing plant. What did it manufacture? Nothing classy, just the common, low grade stuff you see every day being vended from carts along the streets of big cities.

While our parents worked, we kids got a tour of the factory. Our parents held on to our toys for us. At least that's what we were told. And as little kids, we believed it, every one of us. Odds are that they were locked in some locker or desk. Or already lost, no way of telling. None of us care. Not at this juncture. There was going to be a mini-duel monsters tournament later in the day, just for us kids. It would have been done with the now ancient rules from before Pegasus's island tournament. Good thing too, I think anything more complicated would have fried our little brains prematurely. But they would never have had the chance either.

While we were in the boiler room, something went seriously wrong. There was some shouting from another floor that we hadn't visited yet. I remember I was standing next to a little blond girl. We two had been the first ones there and had become fast friends. That happens with little kids. Our guide shouted for us to stay put and ran out the door slamming it behind him. Of course half the kids ran to it and tried to yank it open. It wouldn't budge. I had the good fortune not to be standing next to the monitoring equipment. If I had been, I would have seen that all of the little needles on the gages were in the red area. Alarms rang throughout the building.

Though I couldn't see the gages, I could tell something was wrong. All of us could. There were about 30 kids in that room. Most of them were crying. Heck, odds are that I was crying. I certainly see no reason why I wouldn't have been.

I heard the sound of metal grinding against metal, and then a small hose just dropped from its attachment to the wall. Within moments several others of varying sizes followed. For a moment nothing changed other than a hissing sound from the detached hoses. Steam came out of them and soon the room was a white roiling terror. It didn't stay white for long. Other colors snuck into the fog too. But the white conquered all.

All I knew was that the wall that they had dropped from was getting warmer. It reminded me of my bed near the furnace at home. Every night during the winter, little jets of hot air warmed my skin. I curled up against that wall because it reminded me of home.

Where I was sitting blocked a few of the holes in the wall. Evidently they were still attached to something on the other side because hot gas hit my skin moments after I pressed my body against the wall. Not just hot, but scalding. I screamed, but my voice wasn't heard over the rush of steam and the other screaming children.

Then the boiler exploded. Evidently the release from the disconnected pipes wasn't enough and the pressure too much. The last thing I remember from the mechanical mayhem before everything went black was metal screaming through the air toward me.

I woke up later, I don't know when. A good deal of the mist had gone. I felt weak. Moving hurt. So I didn't. All I needed to see was right in front of me. My horrified eyes took in the wreckage around me. Here and there an appendage stuck out of the mist. They appeared to be attached. But all I needed to see were the open and horrified eyes of my little blond friend to know that everyone was dead. She was no exception.

The door opened and three men in Haz-Mat suits came in. The first one in stopped and looked around in shock.

"God Frank. They're kids in here." I turned my head slightly to hear them better. One of them saw and came over. He stood over me and looked down sympathetically.

"It's all going to be all right kid. We're going to get you out of here." He called back to the third one.

"Ernest, go get some of the others. We need more men to look for survivors. We've got a precedent now." I saw something move under the rubble near me. Yes, I said rubble. Some of the ceiling must have collapsed while I was out. It didn't look to be too heavy though, just plaster, a bit of metal, and a few tiles. I turned my head towards it; and then jerked back in pain. The wall behind me hadn't had the good grace to fall down, so that hurt too. But the man standing over me turned to the pile and waved the first man over.

"Harold, check under this pile. I'll get the kid." Then he picked me up and everything went fuzzy; and from fuzzy, to dark. I was out like a light.

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When I woke up, I was in a hospital room. I knew the following: who I was, who I used to be, and most of what had happened. I also knew where I was, or so I thought. I'd never been in a hospital before (This is not strictly true. Odds are I was born in a hospital. I have no way of knowing one way or the other.) I closed my eyes again and waited for someone to come in.

I slept again, but lightly so that when the door opened what seemed like an eternity later, I sat up; or tried to. The first time I had woken I hadn't moved much if at all other than my eyes, and had not noticed that I was strapped to the sides of the bed by my wrists and ankles. The bonds weren't very tight and odds are that if I had tried, I could have gotten my hands out. I could tell that no amount of maneuvering would free my feet.

I heard footsteps coming closer and then a nurse appeared within my line of sight. She went through what I now believe to be the usual routine; checking all the various monitors that I was attached to, replace whatever was flowing into my body through the IV, and then after my constant attempts at movement jiggled the IV tube noticed that I was awake. Either the nurse was had been on duty for hours without rest or had the job because she was too dim to be a doctor.

"Oh, you're awake."

I nodded.

"Are you hungry? I could get you some food…"

"No, my tummy feels all icky."

Give me a break. I was young. I didn't know how to say "No thank you, I feel a bit queasy from the drugs you've been pumping into my body for I don't know how long."

"Well it's all for the better I suppose. I'm not sure if you're supposed to eat right after you wake up."

"Where are my parents?"

I was dazed. It had never occurred to me that the disaster in the boiler room hadn't been limited to immediate area. The nurse looked nervous while replying.

"Well, sweet pea, I'm not sure I'm the one to tell you that." This was said in almost exactly the tone that a baby sitter or elder cousin will respond to the question "Where do babies come from?" At least I hope it's the elder cousin.

"Who'll tell me then?"

The nurse just shook her head. "They've been waiting for you to wake up. The girls have been conscious for quite a few days now." I would have asked what girls she was talking about, but I was getting drowsy again. The nurse noticed and must have realized that she had just refilled the sedative or some such thing because she cursed. This was compromised of stamping her foot and saying "Oh sour cream" or a similarly ridiculous expletive. I didn't mind. I was already drifting into sleep.

When I woke up again, the same nurse was already there. As soon as I opened my eyes she started fussing over me, adjusting the blanket as though she couldn't have done so while I was asleep, and straightening my pillow. Finally she got around to realizing that I wasn't a baby, and began talking to me though she couldn't keep all of the 'goochi coochi coo' out of her voice. At least she was making an effort.

"How are you feeling honey?"

I blinked sleepily at her and yawned. "I still feel sleepy."

She immediately started fussing again, propping me up by elevating the back of the bed, and trying to get me to drink some water. After some exertion on her part, she managed to get me rolled into a different, larger room. Then I stared at the rooms occupants, and they stared at me.

I believed that I had some reason to be staring. The occupants of the room were all girls, about my age. They looked normal at first, as long as you didn't look too carefully. But if you did look carefully, you would notice that about half an inch of hair, newly grown as it was closer to the scalp, was colored differently than the rest. Least shocking was one girl, built a bit thicker than the rest who had mostly blonde hair, except for the roots which were brown and looked kind of mud colored. The other one that could have been natural was the girl whose hair went from black to red. Then the strange stuff came in. You could almost believe that some one's hair could go from blond to green with some assistance from chlorine. But when one girl's hair was going from brown to green, it reminded me of a forest turned on its head. The last one's hair went from a light brown to blue, and was by far the strangest of them all.

Finally the black going to red haired one spoke. "Why are you staring at me?"

I responded indignantly. This girl wasn't the boss of me. Ah, the naïveté of youth.

"Because you all look funny; if you put your heads together, you'd get half a rainbow."

She turned her head on its side and looked at me as if I was the silliest thing she'd ever seen.

"You aren't looking all that nice yourself you know."

I scowled. What was she talking about? I looked normal. She grinned at my puzzlement.

"There's a mirror over there." She said pointing.

It was one of the most disgusting things I had ever seen. Mostly because I realized that it was me that I was looking at. I'd gotten thin. I looked like ghost. My hair had gotten stark white. My skin had gone several shades lighter. I'd never been dark, but now I was just a few steps away from albino. My eyes were no longer their original color, brown, but had turned a steely grey. Or silver. My skin was sagged slightly at the edges. A row of stitches marched across my forehead.

I reacted fairly well for someone of my age and maturity. I didn't claim that there was some kind of conspiracy or that the mirror lied. I simply walked over to the bucket in the corner and threw up steadily for a few minutes, even after my guts had been completely emptied.

Someone walked in while I was puking my brains out. When I looked up I saw who it was; a business man in a grey suit. He looked like just about any other business man anyone has ever seen on the face of the planet. He stood near the window facing the door and looked around the room as if calculating our reactions.

"Greetings, I am Mr. Dongard, a representative of the company that your parents worked for." He paused, waiting. We said nothing. For a minute the man was nothing more than a symbol of authority from the world of adults, the world that was scheduled to be shattered.

"As you may have been able to ascertain, there was a terrible accident at the Willington Street Complex. One of the feeding pipes for dye somehow became blocked. This caused a back up that turned the entire system into a time bomb. Most of the complex was damaged beyond repair. I offer the condolences of Marked Industries. You six were the only survivors."

"You call this surviving?" A weak voice came from the doorway. The speaker was a boy covered in blankets up to his chin and attached to more equipment than I care to name. He had been rolled in while I was facing the other direction. That would make six of us after all.

Mr. Dongard talked on as if he had never heard the boy. "All of you have been injured in some way. It seems that the new dyeing materials had some slightly hazardous properties. The girls and Timothy here have all had their hair change colors to some extent. Leonard has lost most of his and what is left appears to be white and translucent. Timothy has experienced some scarring, both from shards and burns. His positioning blocking some pipes may very well have saved your lives. In fact, we are all very lucky that he survived." He neglected to mention how weakened my body was. Then again, the doctors were going to give me the run down of this later. I had yet to take note of the reporter that had entered with Leonard. This wasn't just a pity talk. It was a press conference.

"Leonard suffered a concussion, as well as prolonged exposure to fumes. His condition is unstable; he just woke up a few minutes ago. As a courtesy to you, my employers have found some people willing to take care of you six. It will be government funded as an orphanage. Technically you will be obliged to take in any other orphans, but it will be seen to that they are transferred as soon as possible."

He went on in detail about contracts and terms, but it was no longer for our benefit. He was speaking for the reporter's ears alone. Just as well. Having made the connection between him and the disaster, I was seething, as was Red. Green had started crying softly and Blue looked right through Mr. Dongard. Brownie made herself busy by twisting and untwisting the sheets of the bed she was sitting on.

Leonard was furious. If I had been asked to choose who was in control of the situation, I would have said Leonard. Mr. Dongard could say whatever he liked, but if Leonard had told us to punch him in the gut, we would have. Red and I would have at least. Now, in my condition I'm not sure that it would have done anything, but Red's blow would have hurt.

He continued talking around us for awhile. Leonard rebelled in his own way by calling a nurse to take him back to his room. The nurse looked towards Mr. Dongard for permission. The business man ignored him (it was the first male nurse I had seen) and pushed onward through his prepared speech. The nurse took Leonard out and the rest of us followed them.

A few minutes later we had ended up in another hospital room. The nurse had tried to get Leonard to go back to sleep, but he refused. I on the other hand would have paid someone for the chance to lie down and sleep. I sagged against a wall. When the nurse stopped trying to get Leonard to sleep, he turned and saw me. He stood and looked at me for a moment before rushing out of the room.

He returned with a wheelchair, a file, and many apologies. "I'm sorry; I'd forgotten how weak you are. You should get stronger with time, but odds are you'll always need a wheelchair part of the time."

Normally I wouldn't take that sitting down, but I was standing up already and eager for a change. I accepted the wheelchair and sat down. The nurse left and said that if we needed anything to press the buzzer. Leonard took control of the group.

"Well, it looks like the six of us are going to be together for a long time. We probably ought to get to know each other better. That we can do over time, but for now names will be an improvement." Leonard was smart for his age. He was at least as smart as me, and more lucid. He may have been smarter. We never really got to find out.

We all introduced ourselves. Everyone knew my name, as well as Leonard's. Even the most boring of speeches gains importance when it is about you. The red head was named Carla; Cari for short. The one with brown hair was named Mary, short for Mary. Blue was named Annalisa, though she insisted that we call her Anna. Actually, Cari insisted that we call her Anna claiming that Anna had insisted when they had first met. Evidently Anna had recently become the quiet type. The last one, Green, was named Melissa. Miracle of miracles, she had no problems with being called Melissa, Mel, or Lisa, and Annalisa wasn't responding to Lisa.

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A few days later we met our guardians. Both were female, though one looked a tad older than the other. The one with chestnut brown hair looked like she was fresh out of college and had a term paper due today; she had bags under her eyes and slouched slightly. The other one stood nearly ramrod straight but had a more amber shade of hair that dropped straight down and was held in a loose pony tail and was clearly older than the first.

They took us to an orphanage, there were a few other kids, but they were either older than us or younger, and either were adopted or left to other places for older children. We moved on again, hopping around the country at the convenience of the government and the company. The two had come to some sort of agreement that no one could really understand as to who paid for our various expenses. At some point it was decided that we would be home schooled by Elli (the younger one) and Rachel (the elder and stricter) as they were both qualified.

In addition to this each of us would be allowed one instrument of reasonable quality. Each of us learned to play a few scales on an instrument before turning them over to Mel. In the end, she was the one who got the use out of all of them though the rest of us did our best to keep up a feeble masquerade whenever some official came to see how we were doing, which wasn't often.

For a brief period of time they agreed to sponsor one hobby for each of us. We all chose the same one, namely Duel Monsters. It's fair to say that we became better than your average Joe fairly quickly. With six of us, we had more practice, and it was constant. Surprisingly Rachel was the one who had us duel to sort out minor arguments such as whose turn it was to do a certain chore. Elli had some idealistic notion of us sorting things out peacefully and without argument. Leonard was the undisputed best of us. We all defeated him at some point, but none of us could do it regularly. The rest of us came about even with each other. Cari and I had our own little rivalry going and would duel for any and no reason.

Overtime, I filled out some. My skin no longer sagged though I still looked a tad gaunt. My skin remained somewhat bleached. I did however get a full head of hair that was silver during the winter months and turned white during the summer. I found it irritating that it wasn't white during winter when it might blend in with whatever snow there may have been. I still used the wheelchair fairly frequently. For the bigger orphanages that we lived in I would use it all the time. If we took up residence in smaller quarters I usually walked. Somehow the chairs were all positioned in just the right places whenever I tired.

Leonard never really got better. Sometimes he could walk around, but even I was stronger. We kept oxygen tanks for emergencies. One time he slipped into a coma for almost a year. He came out of it, but his health just went down hill from there. He died when we were all around 12 years old. We moved again right after. Our current place in North Dakota held too many memories. We set aside his dueling deck. Occasionally one of us would take out his deck and flip through it, but we always put it back in its little glass case.

We moved to West City. We were given a building that was basically two town houses stuck together, one on each side of the block. It wasn't in the best part of town, but right on the edge near the park and across from the courthouse. Technically it was handicapped accessible. The back door came out on street level but the street wasn't well maintained. There were large trash bins on the sidewalk making it hard to get a wheelchair through. We generally kept that door locked. The front door was elevated and one had to go down a set of stairs (8, I counted) to reach street level. Usually if I was going out on a long excursion, I would walk down the stairs and Elli or Rachel would carry the wheelchair down.

Life continued as usual for a year. Elli and Rachel got part time jobs. One worked a morning shift, and the other the afternoon. A young man named Ray occasionally came to help out. It had started as volunteer work but soon he was coming on his own time. Evidently he was to type who actually got pleasure out of helping others. And I'd been thinking that they were a myth spread around by children's television and grade school teachers.

The thing that interrupted our daily schedule was the regional tournament. All of us wanted to go. Ray was also going to be in attendance and was willing to look after me incase I fell ill as I was so prone to doing. Elli however wouldn't hear of it. She had Ray duel each of us in turn. He beat us all. She said that it proved that none of us had any business going to the tournament if we knew that we couldn't win.

It was unfair. Ray admitted that he had gotten lucky a few times, and the duel against Anna had been particularly close. Elli would not be budged. The next day however, she allowed us to watch the final duel out in the park. It was amazing. The holograms attacked each other like real monsters. The two loudest personalities automatically took different sides; Mary immediately and quietly declared that she wanted everyone to win. Cari clearly admired one finalist, Alicia and her deck. I was going for Lucien. I liked the unorthodox. And his deck was anything but orthodox. The entire point of the deck appeared to be to cause the opponent to deck out. In the dramatic finale however, Lucien violated his win condition by attacking for the win. I don't think anyone complained.

Imagine our surprise when Mr. Dongard was the one announcing the victor. Rachel later told us that he had resigned his position after dealing with us and gotten a job with Industrial Illusions. Almost as soon as the bus had driven away with the duelists and many of the spectators, some of what remained of the crowd did their utmost to become the second ones to use the duel station.

Cari had other ideas. She pulled my wheelchair out from behind the stands in an unprecedented fit of helpfulness, helped me into it, and had me part way into the crowd before anyone could get themselves sorted out well enough to start a duel.

She wheeled me through the crowd until there was a small clear strip in front of us and then she gave me an extra push and let go. My wheelchair rolled on until it bumped into the entry of the duel station. Then she ran forward apologizing just a little too loud. She opened the entry gate and pushed me in. I was annoyed and made that fact clear.

"What did you do that for?"

"So we could be the next ones to duel with this dimwit!" She was cheery; a rare occurrence that usually coincided with the completion of a scheme.

"But we don't have our decks." I was getting exasperated. This type of thing was not done. Not to mention silly as we didn't have decks. She closed the gate behind me and walked to the other side.

"We do now." She looked back towards home.

I followed her eyes and saw Mary puffing her way toward us holding our deck boxes. Cari grinned as her deck was handed to her.

"I had her run up and get them for us as soon as the Championship ended." Cari wasn't hard to please. Unfortunately she was just as easy to disappoint making living with her a somewhat risky endeavor.

Mary came around and handed me my deck and leaned over me to press the button to send the lift up. She stepped out of the way quickly so as not to be pulled up with it.

"Good luck!"

I was wary of the support.

"You've already said the same to Cari haven't you?"

"Yup!" I could hear the exclamation points. Anna and Mel had taken seats in the front row of the stands. Seeing that another duel was about to start, some of the remaining spectators sat around them. We each drew our starting hands and the gems on the sides of the duel station lit up. Predictably mine was a steely gray. Cari's turned a blazing white tinted with blue. The spinner appeared and selected me to go first.

Timothy: 8000

Carla: 8000

I glanced over my hand. I had one little combo, but nothing to back it up. Well there was that card…

"I summon Bokoichi the Freightening Car (500/500). Then I will play Machine Duplication to increase my resources." One train car turned to three. "Now I will set two cards down and end my turn."

Cari drew. "You've tried that trick one too many times. I know fully well that you have a trap to spring as soon as I attack. And I have just the thing to stop it. I summon Mirage Dragon." A yellow dragon appeared. Before it got the chance to adopt a fierce pose it fell down a deep hole. I grinned.

"I activated Trap Hole. As it activates when your monster is summoned, I don't have to worry about its ability to stop traps during the battle phase." It takes a carrot to lead a donkey. For Cari all it took was a verbal sticking out of the tongue. I was an old dog and as far as she was concerned I had no business learning new tricks. You could almost see the dander rising.

"I set a card and end my turn."

I have nothing against being predictable. Sometimes it just works better than anything else, especially when nothing can be done to stop it. "I set a monster face down and now all three of my Bokoichi will run you down." One by one the train cars chugged down the field and crashed into her.

Timothy: 8000

Carla: 6500

Cari was steaming. She knew it would have been stupid to waste a defensive trap on a five hundred attack monster. It didn't mean that she had to like being attacked by three of them.

"You just had to rub it in didn't you?"

"Not really; I just had to do all the damage I could. I'm setting another card down and ending my turn."

As she contemplated her next move, I could practically see the gears in her head grinding away. Evidently they came to a stop as she reached a conclusion. "I'm going to summon Divine Dragon – Ragnarok (1500/1000) in attack mode and set a card to end my turn." Cari had come to the conclusion that I wouldn't attempt this without some kind of protection; smart girl.

The gears in my head were moving too. I had plans for the turn, big plans. "I flip summon Dekoichi the Battlechanted Locomotive (1400/1000)." Here came the big one, the mother of all card drawing combos. "You should know how this works by now. I get to draw one card, and then another card for each Bokoichi on my side of the field. The total is four." The train chugged around my side of the field. A rather un-required show but I suppose Kaiba Corp. wanted the illusions to appeal to the lowest common denominator; aka small children.

Cari wasn't going to take this without refute. "I'm surprised you managed to pull it off. Usually you only manage… how many cards? Maybe you've gotten one or two."

"I've gotten all four previously and you know it. In any case I'm going to activate my face down Dust Tornado to blow one of your cards away before I attack." I wasn't about to get knocked off my seat of glory without a few jabs of my own. Admittedly I hadn't drawn the best cards, but I would live.

A smirk spread across Cari's face. "Sucker! I'm going to activate the card that you sought to destroy, Burst Breath. I will tribute my Divine Dragon Ragnarok in order to destroy all monsters on the field with less defense than it has attack. That includes all of yours." As a breath of flame scoured my field I scowled. The gears in Cari's brain had moved faster than mine. Good thing I had a wrench ready to be thrown.

"I set a monster face down with another card behind it. Your turn."

Cari was still riding the joy of wiping my field clean. "First I will summon Lord of Dragon (1200/1100). He won't be sticking around for long because I play Dragon's Mirror fusing him with the Divine Dragon Ragnarok to create King Dragun (2400/1100)." A dragon footed mirror appeared on the field. As she removed her monsters from play an image appeared in it. Soon King Dragun itself burst roaring from the frame, shattering it.

Cari's eyes were almost glowing. She loved her dragons and when she got on a summoning spree she was well-nigh unstoppable. "Now I will use King Dragun's effect to special summon Tyrant Dragon (2900/2500) from my hand." The giant dragon hit the field in a flash of fire and light. Kaiba Corp. was definitely going for the showiest effects possible. "Tyrant Dragon, attack his monster!"

A great ball of flame was loosed upon the field and was met by a trio of blue robed priests. "I activate Waboku. My monster and my life points are safe." My face down monster was revealed as Heavy Mech Support Platform (500/500). Cari sighed.

"I can't do anything else, its your turn."

I could get to like my hand. What I had seen as misfortune had just turned out to be a boon. "I play a second Machine Duplication on my Heavy Mech Support Platform in order to summon two more from my deck. Now I will tribute one of them for B.E.S. Crystal Core (2100/1000). As you should know Heavy Mech Support Platform is one of the more flexible union monsters in the game as it can attach to any machine monster. Now one of them will attach to Crystal Core. I'm going to leave the last one on the field in defense mode." The small machine latched onto the sides of the blue crystal that was the main body of my battleship (2600/1500).

My mechanical monster's strength grew. I grinned. "Now my battleship is ready to defeat your dragons. But first I will flip up the spell card that I had set as a bluff, Boss Rush. Now Crystal Core, decimate her King Dragun." My monster prepped a beam and fired it off, but it was lost in a large explosion. Cari slipped her trap into the graveyard.

"I activated Widespread Ruin. I can't have you wreaking havoc among the ranks of my dragons."

"You're not safe yet. Boss Rush lets me Special Summon another one. This time I think I'll select B.E.S. Covered Core (2500/800). It will attack King Dragun." The large battleship opened fire.

Timothy: 8000

Carla: 6400

"Because my monster was Special Summoned it didn't receive any of its counters. When it battles a monster without a counter it is destroyed. So that means that I can retrieve yet another from my deck. Now, welcome B.E.S. Tetran (1800/2300). It will attack your Tyrant Dragon. Before embarking on this suicide mission I will give it assistance. I activate Limiter Removal doubling its attack (3600/2300)." B.E.S. Tetran spun around, its tentacles flailing. Soon miniature versions of it appeared and approached the opposing monster. Tyrant Dragon screamed in pain and was destroyed. B.E.S. Tetran exploded.

Timothy: 8000

Carla: 5700

"Once again my monster is destroyed and another is summoned. I will bring forth a second B.E.S. Covered Core and have it attack directly." Light erupted over the entire field as a laser show played out over Cari's body.

Timothy: 8000

Carla: 3200

"I will set two cards face down and end my turn." Finally the turn passed to Cari again. Heavy Mech Support Platform self destructed because of Limiter Removal.

"It's time for this madness to stop. I summon Masked Dragon. Now that I have a dragon on the field I can play this; Stamping Destruction. It destroys Boss Rush and causes you to lose 500 life points."

Timothy: 7500

Carla: 3200

Now I had reason to be worried. But I couldn't let that show. "You don't have enough cards to do much damage to me. That was the last card in your hand."

"I don't need a lot of cards in my hand to beat you. Masked Dragon, attack." Both monsters went up in flames. Masked Dragon was replaced by a blindingly white dragon with tinted blue scales and mane.

Timothy: 7500

Carla: 2100

"Using Masked Dragon's effect I special summon Divine Dragon – Excelion (1500/800). It will attack directly."

Timothy: 6000

Carla: 2100

"End."

It may have looked like I was in a bad position, but this was not in fact the case. I had plenty to work with. "I set a monster face down and end." Once again, it didn't look like much, but it had some real potential.

Carla drew. There was something about the look in her eye that I didn't like. She grinned. Oh, now I knew what she'd drawn. This was one of those times I wished that my wheelchair had an eject button.

"I sacrifice my dragon for… drum roll please." Mel obliged only with a sardonic 'bum-bum-che' and earned herself a glare from Cari.

I called out. "Just summon it already."

"Oh alright. I sacrifice it for another Divine Dragon – Excelion (1500/800) using the ability to raise its attack by 1000 because I have one other in the graveyard. Now it will attack your face down monster." Roulette Barrel was revealed only to be destroyed by holy light.

"Is it my turn now?"

"No!"

"You can't do anything else."

"Oh alright, take your turn." Once again, my shameless logic defeated Cari's attitude.

I looked over my hand and set the cogs of my mind into motion. There was one way I could win. And there was nothing that Cari could do to stop it. She would hate me for this one.

"I summon Drillago (1600/1100). You should know that when you only have monsters with 1600 or more attack it is allowed to attack directly. Now I could just attack directly and hope for the best. But instead I think I'm going to play 7 Completed increasing it's attack by 700 points. Now my monster (2300/1100) can wreak some real mayhem on the game. Drillago, end this." The machine's many drills finished off Carla's life points.

We collected our cards and headed back home. It was Saturday which meant that the adults were more than willing to let Mary cook, and she had promised to make gnocchi, potato pasta, in honor of my victory. Eating a favorite food just made victory all the sweeter.

While Mary cooked, I took Leonard's deck out of its case and took a seat on the fourth of eight stairs in front of the house. There were beggars in the street as usual. I was on speaking terms with several of them. None of us were much for small talk though, so after a few greetings the conversation stopped and I sat there flipping through the deck.

I wondered why Leonard had died. Why not me? By all rights I should have been the one left sick and helpless by the accident. I was stupid enough to sit right by the pipes. One of the theories I had heard bounced around was that if I hadn't been knocked out by the bit of flying metal I would have died. Something about regularity of breathing and heart rate. I never understood it.

He had known he was going to die. He had never said so, but he did. If he hadn't, why would he have used the deck he did? What did he do to deserve this?

I heard the sound of shoes on pavement and looked up. A group of teenagers walked by carrying hot dogs and drinks. One fumbled with his change finally getting most of it in his pocket before turning around the corner. I caught the eye of one of the nearer beggars and pointed to the coin just as more footsteps approached. A boy turned the corner. He looked to be about my age. Then I recognized him. Our local champion, the one who had won just before my duel against Cari. What was his name again? Oh yeah, it was Lucien. He was tired and not used to walking, that was obvious. He was also proud. As soon as his brain registered the presence of other people he broke into a jog.

He noticed the coin on the pavement just as the beggar bent down. He got it first. Their eyes met. I watched. The beggar muttered something and backed off. Lucien pocketed the coin. I had been shuffling the cards nervously and I dropped one on the stairs, face down. I watched gears turn in Lucien's head. These were some well oiled gears, his decision was made with such speed that I doubt anyone else noticed the pause for thought. He brought a hand full of change out of his pocket and handed it to the man before jogging onward.

The street began to breathe again without realizing that it had been holding its breath. I picked up the card on the stairs and turned it over. I smiled when I saw Graceful Charity. Maybe it did exist in the world. It just took a pinch of guilt every once in a while to keep it alive and running.


	2. Trial by Darkness

Shadows of the Small

Chapter 2 – Trial by Darkness

"If they give you ruled paper, write the other way." – Juan Ramon Jimenez

Timothy

Our lives descended into routine boredom after that Saturday. On Sunday what seemed like half the dueling population of West City had showed up bright and early around the Duel Station. Everyone wanted the chance to duel using holograms. There was no way of our getting through that crowd to duel again unless I played the poor little cripple again. And seeing how that had been played out last time, I wasn't looking forward to it.

So instead we lounged around the house indulging in our various past times. Mary cooked every meal and occasionally experimented with various tidbits. Having pasta with mustard seed in it for dinner was an interesting experience.

Mel was playing various instruments throughout the day, her green hair cut short so as not to interfere. She had gotten quite good with them over the years. This meant that her room was the place of choice for Anna, who read. Anna was a veritable book worm. Most of the time she read a book a day. The days she didn't she read more than one. She was the public library's best friend.

Cari was glued to her computer screen. Aside from surfing the web, she was a wizard with computers. She could write programs (and viruses though she never released those except for the one time when she sent one to Mr. Dongard from an alias) and design web sites. Actually she had designed the web site for the orphanage in order to encourage donations. Needless to say we didn't get many.

I did a little bit of everything. I would help Mary with some of the simple things in the kitchen, or be an audience to Mel. I've always been a sucker for Brahm's Waltz when it's played right. And if I stuck around for long enough I'd hear the Four Seasons too. Occasionally I might read some, but the number of books that Anna recommends has always been more than I have time to read.

Monday was regular. We struggled through home schooling for most of the day. On Tuesday I had one of my bad days. The doctors don't know quite what it is, though they suspect one of the recently discovered relatives of epilepsy. I don't exactly have seizures, but I'll be delusional and unable to move in a controlled fashion for prolonged periods of time.

During the day at least one of the girls was by my side at all times. Each brought her talent to the room. Mel would play calming music, or sing. Mary brought in tomato soup that she spooned into my mouth during my more lucid moments. Anna would read to me in that quiet voice of hers. Cari generally avoided playing nurse, but that day she brought in the laptop and had it play my favorite songs that Mel couldn't replicate and worked on the orphanage web site, feverishly taking pictures of me on a digital camera she'd gotten for Christmas and adding them to the website.

I was better by the next day. In addition, the website had caught the attention of a wealthy local family. The name had a habit of slipping out of my head every few minutes, but they were a middle-aged couple, no children. They were considering making a large donation to the orphanage. That couldn't hurt, not by any means.

In addition to all this, Rachel announced a field trip. The plan was for us to go down to a warehouse of fine plastic products and learn about storing methods, as well as visit the accounting office to see how books were kept. Evidently they expected us to pay attention. No idea why though.

In any case, we went on Friday (the only reason we had agreed to it was because Elli had told us that we could duel using the projectors afterward, so we brought our decks along). The ware house was absolutely full of opaque automatic sliding doors. I hated to think what might happen if there was a power outage, and I said as much to our guide. Elli told me not to ask impertinent questions. Rachel was at her morning job and not with us at the moment. The guide however laughed an answered anyhow.

"You have a very good point young man. Actually, all is accounted for as we have our own back up generator both supplements our electricity on a regular basis, and that would power the doors in case of an outage."

The tour progressed through the administrative section of the building and on into accounting. There we were assaulted by an hour long explanation of every program they used (this interested Cari to some extent though I could tell that she had a more efficient way just waiting to burst out of that red head of hers), as well as a 'brief' explanation of the mathematics behind it all.

When that was over Elli stayed to talk to the accountant and we were told that or guide was awaiting us on the catwalk over the warehouse. They gave us the directions and they walked, and I was pushed along in my wheel chair by Mary, out one sliding door, down the hallway, and through another sliding door entered onto the catwalk. The sliding door hadn't responded for a few seconds, but then it had opened anyhow.

We looked down into receding darkness. As it faded a red haired woman was revealed at the center. We assumed that she was our guide and Mel waved. That got her attention alright. She looked right at us and all of a sudden we wished that Mel wasn't so friendly. She called out to someone we couldn't see.

"Sanchez!" The shadows began to re-appear and the automatic door wouldn't open. A wiry young man came along from the other side of the catwalk and led us down the stairs to the main floor at knife point, Sanchez rolling my wheelchair. Five people came out from under the catwalk where we had stood. Four of them were male, the other female by lack of other options. All wore black.

It was clear that the red haired woman was in control of the situation. "It looks like I couldn't have asked for better test subjects. Am I correct in believing that all five of you duel?" We were too shocked to respond. Sanchez put the knife to my neck from behind.

Immediately everyone but me nodded. Mary was quick to answer for me. "He duels too."

The red haired woman nodded and Sanchez took the knife from my throat. "Good. And I take it that you have your decks with you?" Again we all nodded.

"Excellent." She turned to the five that had come from under the catwalk. Sanchez had joined them. "Students, pick an opponent, all of you. Sanchez, you have somewhere to be, no? Hurry up. We don't want our little champion to get away and you haven't gotten the pictures yet. I'll take the knife." Sanchez left the knife in her hands and walked off to an emergency exit. The darkness had almost fully formed around us by now. No alarm rang despite the barely visible warnings by the door.

The woman picked the lock on one of the large storage cases that littered the warehouse and opened the door. She then cut open one of the card board boxes and began taking out what looked like duel disks, already extended. From the labeling they were cheap imitations, children's toys. Each of the five took two. They each put one on. The others they brought to us. The one girl brought me mine and stood helped me get it on, roughly shoving my arm through it. I put my deck in myself.

The woman addressed them one more time. "You know the way back. Your final test will be getting out if you can defeat the children. If you don't beat them you won't have anything to worry about." She took a duel disk with her and headed out the same door as Sanchez.

By this time the darkness was so all encompassing that I couldn't see my friends. I turned to the girl.

"Why?"

She giggled. "You look so funny when you're angry. It doesn't matter. I'll even let you start the duel. Just don't ask too many questions, kay? All you need to know is that if you win, you'll be set free."

Tim: 8000

Girl: 8000

I started it off. I had no idea what the hell was going on, but I knew that I wanted to get out of there pronto. And if the only way to do that was to win, I was going to try to win.

"I set a monster face down and set a card down behind it. End turn." Impossibly, the cards appeared face down in front of me.

"This is going to be too easy. I play Nobleman of Extermination on your face down card, removing it from play. If it's a trap- well, no need to worry about that." She said as my face down was revealed to be Machine Duplication.

"I'll summon Vorse Raider (1900/1200) and attack your face down monster." A small sphere appeared and attached to the beast. I had just begun to take the inexplicable images for granted and explained.

"Adhesive Explosive (1000/1000) attaches to your monster and destroys it during your next standby phase."

"I can deal with that. But my life points are safe in the interim. Take your turn."

I almost forgot the stakes, that's how much I was starting to enjoy the duel. Then I heard someone cry out in the dark. It could only have been one of the girls. I gritted my teeth. "I wouldn't be so sure of that. I summon Drillago (1600/1100) and attack your life points directly." The drill composed monster dodged around Vorse Raider and drilled into one of her arms.

Tim: 8000

Girl: 6400

She cried out in pain and the wound bled. Not as much as such a thing should have, but some. "How?"

I was shocked at her injury. How was that possible? None the less, I explained my part. "Drillago may attack directly when all monsters on your side of the field have 1600 attack or greater. I set a card and end my turn."

As soon as she had drawn Adhesive Explosive went off and destroyed Vorse Raider. "First I play Smashing Ground to destroy your monster." The ground shook and Drillago disappeared. "Then I summon Newdoria (1200/800) and attack directly." The pink monster came towards me. I could smell its stinking breath as it wrapped its hands around my neck and squeezed.

Tim: 6800

Girl: 6400

I coughed and tried to regain my breath as the girl smiled maliciously. "Doesn't feel so good when you're on the receiving end, now does it? I'll set a card down and end my turn."

I picked up my card for the turn and tried to come up with a plan. I have found that when I've just been strangled by a creature that shouldn't actually exist except in nightmares this can be harder than I had previously thought.

"I'll set a monster and end my turn."

"You mean to say you can't do better than that?" She sneered at me. "Well I most certainly can. I summon Mad Dog of Darkness (1900/1400) and attack your face down with it." She growled when it revealed Roulette Barrel (1000/2000).

Tim: 6800

Girl: 6300

"Take your turn."

I drew and looked towards Roulette Barrel. "I will use my machine's ability. Go, die roll." No die roll came. Evidently things worked differently here than with Kaiba Corp.'s relatively tame holograms. Instead side chambers opened on the monster. On one side, two wires came out. On the other were four.

"I choose level four and will destroy Newdoria." The four wires plugged into the barrel which promptly shot at and destroyed Newdoria.

The girl seemed unaffected and just continued to sneer at me. "Foolish boy, you should have destroyed Mad Dog of Darkness. It's stronger."

"It doesn't have an ability that would come back and destroy one of my monsters if I were to attack it. I sacrifice Roulette Barrel for B.E.S. Tetran (1800/2300). First I will use its ability, sacrificing one of its three counters to destroy your face down card." A small energy blast atomized Sakuretsu Armor. "Then I will activate my own face down, Rare Metalmorph. It will increase the attack of my monster by 500 as well as rendering it invulnerable to one Spell Card. B.E.S. Tetran (2300/2300) attacks Mad Dog of Darkness."

Tim: 6800

Girl: 5900

I chose not to mention that it lost a counter in battle. No need to remind her. She looked somewhat disappointed. Maybe it had escaped her notice. Then again, with her deck, maybe it didn't matter. She didn't pull any punches. "First I will play Fissure, diffusing the protections of Rare Metalmorph. Then I play Offerings to the Doomed. I give up my next draw phase and destroy B.E.S. Tetran." Something exploded within the spacecraft and it sunk below the surface of the shadows. "Lastly I'll summon Slate Warrior (1900/400) and attack directly." The fiend came over and jabbed me in the stomach, casual as could be.

Tim: 4900

Girl: 5900

This time it took me a few minutes to recover. Some say that battle changes a person deep inside. I wondered how deep inside my digestive system that blow had penetrated. At some point the girl must have ended her turn because she was tapping her foot impatiently.

If it wasn't for the wheelchair I would have been knocked flat. At this point I might have been standing up. Instead I drew a card from the faux duel disk and made my move. "I will set a card and end my turn."

Could I take another blow? I had no idea, but I wasn't looking forward to it. She took up her cards. "I will set a card also. But I'm going to attack directly with Slate Warrior as well."

Tim: 3000

Girl: 5900

So I could take another blow. I was fast learning that the more you get hit the less it hurts. At this point I became acutely grateful that the human nervous system worked using differences rather than actualities. Again she was tapping her foot. I took this to mean: "On the off chance you still live, make your move." So I did.

"I'll set a monster facedown and end my turn."

So close to victory my opponent looked warily at both face down cards. "You know, if I destroy that monster, I could win. But somehow I don't think that set card of yours is benign. So I'm going to activate my face down Rageki Break, discarding Hammer Shot to destroy it."

I smiled weakly. "I chain it. Waboku will prevent any battle damage this turn."

"I'll summon a Newdoria and end my turn." She hissed.

I took note of her empty hand. If ever there was a time to act, this was it. "I flip summon Dekoichi the Battlechanted Locomotive, allowing me to draw one card." Perfect.

I had a plan and I had five cards in my hand to carry it out with. "First I will sacrifice Dekoichi for Big Core (2300/1100). Then I play Autonomous Action Unit to special summon your Vorse Raider at the cost of 1500 life points."

Tim: 1500

Girl: 5900

I continued. It was going to take a lot of guts to win this duel now, but I had the knowledge that she had absolutely nothing that could stop me. I hoped. "Then I play Premature Burial to bring back B.E.S. Tetran (1800/2300). Finally I play Monster Gate, allowing me to tribute one monster on the field to pick up cards until I reach a monster, and special summon it. I will tribute your Vorse Raider." I flipped through the top cards of my deck. Rare Metalmorph, Limiter Removal, and…

"I special summon B.E.S. Crystal Core (2100/1000). As the finishing touch, I will play Boss Rush." My three battleships floated imperiously above my now quaking opponent.

"B.E.S. Crystal Core, attack Slate Warrior." Without its counters, the battleship exploded right along with its victim. Emerging out of the smoke another came to take its place (2100/1000).

Tim: 1500

Girl: 5700

"B.E.S. Tetran, attack Newdoria." She had no choice. She took the only one of my battleships that had counters. And as Big Core was destroyed by Newdoria, Covered Core (2500/800) came to reinforce it just as a second Big Core (2300/1100) came behind Tetran.

I had worked myself into a fury. "Attack my battleships. Teach her the meaning of true oblivion!"

Soon the light show ended. My opponent was nowhere to be seen. I couldn't see anyone else. I wondered if they were ok. After what seemed like hours, though it may have been minutes I made out a form coming through the darkness. To my relief it was no new assailant, but Cari instead. I waved feebly to make sure she saw me.

"Cari, you won! How was your duel?"

"I'll tell you about it later. You did as well I see. Have you seen any of the others?" She looked as worried as I felt. Now that she was closer, I could tell that she walked with a limp.

"I heard someone cry out earlier, second or third turn of the duel. Nothing else."

"I heard the same. Let's find them and see if we can't help." Cari took on the task of pushing my wheelchair and rolled me on into the darkness.


	3. Dragon's Rage

Shadows of the Small

Chapter 3 – Dragon's Rage

"He felt like his whole life was some sort of dream and he sometimes wondered whose it was and whether they were enjoying it." – Douglas Adams, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

"If the facts don't fit the theory, change the facts." – Albert Einstein

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Cari

Shadows constricted around me. The duel disk lay at my feet; I had yet to don it. My presumed opponent stood across from me with his head cocked at an irritating angle. We stood in silence for several moments until he broke it.

"Why don't you put the duel disk on?"

There was no avoiding it now. No retort could keep up my silent protest without turning it into a mockery. I slid the duel disk onto my arm, chaffing at the collar it represented as well as the chill plastic. I had noticed a drastic change in temperature. Ever sensitive to the cold I regretted my sleeveless top.

"Since you're so loath to duel I'll start us off." My opponent again sought to mock me.

"Fine by me, let me see if you can duel."

Cari: 8000

Boy: 8000

He snorted softly. "I will set a monster face down along with an additional card. Do what you can, it is your turn."

She considered her hand carefully. "I will set a monster face down. I'll set two cards behind it. It is your move." She felt that the taunt was recognized though unspoken.

He didn't need to think about his move. "I flip summon my White Ninja (1500/800). Its ability destroys one defense position monster on the field. Now, your monster is gone." In a flash of smoke the White Ninja appeared on top of her face down card. Swiftly it stabbed down with its knife and Troop Dragon was destroyed. As soon as I blinked it had appeared on the other side of the field with no sign of transit.

It was at this point that I remembered that the duel disks were fakes. If they were fakes, then they couldn't project holograms. If they couldn't project holograms then these weren't holograms. And if they weren't holograms they must be the real thing.

_Monsters aren't real. _I reminded myself.

**_Well then, what are these? _**I had to admit, I presented a strong argument.

_Not entirely sure, I require more data. _

**_Well you're about to get it; angry ninja at twelve o'clock. _**

****Indeed. And that ninja was about to get a lot angrier. Things usually do when they attack. Instead of going straight for the throat, it looked like my opponent had slightly different plans.

"I activate Ninjitsu Art of Transformation. This continuous trap allows me to transform a Ninja on my side of the field into a stronger monster; though it must be a Beast, Winged-Beast, or Insect and have no more than three more stars than the sacrificed ninja. White Ninja has four stars giving me a wide range of options. I will sacrifice White Ninja for Big Koala (2700/2000)."

The koala looked friendlier at least. Unfortunately it was easily fifty times my size and being friendly wouldn't stop if from accidentally stepping on me. And ninja-boy wasn't done.

"Next I will summon Lady Ninja Yae (1100/200) and discard a wind monster; The All-Seeing White Tiger (1300/500), to send one of your set cards back to your hand. I will select the one on the left." He pointed and my set copy of Dragon's Rage was returned to my hand. In the meantime I examined his new ninja. She looked like what I imagined Mel might look like in a few years if she let her hair grow long. I made a note to tell her that someone besides Weevil and a game show hostess shared her hair color. Boy would she be glad to hear that. She had an intense loathing for Weevil and didn't like the game show hostess much better.

Again she was glad that it didn't take long to think. Her opponent was smiling; never a good sign. "Now I will attack your life points directly with Lady Ninja Yae."

Cari: 6900

Boy: 8000

Another way the ninja differed from Mel. The ninja hit a lot harder. Her knife left a bleeding cut on my upper arm. Any doubt of the reality of the monsters went out the window.

Then I had one of what Tim calls my 'sudden realizations of the obvious.' If his attacks injured me, then mine would injure him. I grinned savagely.

_He will pay._

He raised an eyebrow. Evidently it hadn't occurred to him that a trap didn't need to be sprung on the first monster to attack. His confidence was complete.

"Big Koala attacks."

Cari: 4200

Boy: 8000

The colossal marsupial trod on me. It looked like an accident but I knew better now than to think a seemingly innocent creature didn't want to hurt me. _I need to get a t-shirt: Beware the Savage Koalas. _I didn't think anything was broken even though my head was pounding: everything moved. The bottom of a giant Koala's foot is softer than one might think, but that didn't make the experience pleasant.

One thing lessened the pain. I realized that this duelist couldn't be all that experienced. If he had been, he would have waited to activate Ninjitsu Art of Transformation until he had attacked with White Ninja.

_This won't be hard. _

My opponent ended his turn and I leapt on it like it was a once in a life time opportunity. "I draw. Now I will activate my set card; Jar of Greed. This will allow me to draw yet another card. Now I will summon Divine Dragon – Ragnarok (1500/1000). Then I will play Stamping Destruction, destroying your Ninjitsu Art of Transformation and dealing 500 points of damage."

Cari: 4200

Boy: 7500

To my surprise rather than returning White Ninja to the field, it just destroyed Big Koala, an unexpected bonus. "I'll follow that up by attacking Lady Ninja Yae."

Cari: 4200

Boy: 7100

"Set card and end turn."

This guy practically had the words 'I have an evil plan' scrawled across his face as he made his move. I heard a faint scream of pain from somewhere, accenting the move. _It was one of the girls; Tim can't scream that high. _ "I set a monster face down and set a card. End turn."

Real impressive; luckily I had just the thing to put a stop to his nefarious scheming. "I summon Mirage Dragon (1600/600). Now, to ensure I get something done this turn I will activate the trap card Dragon's Rage so that I may deal damage despite your defense position monsters. Now, Mirage Dragon will attack your set monster."

A red ninja appeared under Mirage Dragon's assault. My opponent was rather too keen to point out its ability. "Crimson Ninja (300/300) has a flip effect; it may destroy one trap card on the field. Dragon's Rage is no more."

Cari: 4200

Boy: 5800

"Only a little too late to prevent damage to yourself, but I don't mind." I said sweetly. "Divine Dragon Ragnarok attack directly."

Cari: 4200

Boy: 4300

"Now I end my turn."

He examined my field, not that there was much to see. "I summon Ninja Grandmaster Sasuke (1800/1000). He will attack Mirage Dragon."

The ninja grandmaster leapt across the field twisting through the air in a fashion that suggested that he had no bones and that if he did have them they were most probably made of rubber. None of this detracted from the strength of his blows as he sunk his knives into my dragon.

Cari: 4000

Boy: 4300

"Give up, you cannot stop me." I blinked and looked at the field. Despite the impossible realism I failed to see anything to encourage his insane confidence.

There was no way in hell he was going to taunt me without a retort. "I'll give up when I'm six feet under your feet."

"I know several people who would be able to do that. Unfortunately I'm not that far along in my studies."

Now I was just plain curious. "Studies?"

"Never mind that." He had made a mistake. I could see that. I just didn't know what it was or how I could use it to my advantage. The difference between people and computers is that with computers all you have to do is tell them what to do, and give them the tools to do it. People take some hitting around.

"I'll mind what I like. Right now I'm going to summon Lord of D. That's Lord of Dragon (1100/1200) to you. Now I play Dragon's Mirror to fuse him with Divine Dragon – Ragnarok to create King Dragun (2400/1100)." The claw footed mirror appeared, shadows spinning within it. Within moments King Dragun had dragged itself through the frame and destroyed the mirror with a lash of its tail.

And I wasn't done. "Now I will use King Dragun's special ability to summon a dragon from my hand; Masked Dragon (1400/1100). King Dragun, attack Sasuke."

My opponent developed an annoying malevolent squint in his eye. His teeth were the only things glinting in the rather limited light, astounding that they managed to show at all really. "I activate my trap."

I cut him off; I would not be cut down. "King Dragun negates all your effects that target my dragons." Not technically correct as it in fact protects all dragons, but far as I was concerned at the moment, all dragons were mine so there was no problem.

"I'm not targeting your creatures but mine. Activate Ninjitsu Art of Decoy!"

I didn't see what this was going to do. The flames of my dragon's attack had already overwhelmed the ninja. But when the flames stopped all that was there was a mound of ash; and one rubber boned ninja standing off to the side.

Cari: 4000

Boy: 3700

"My ninja can't be destroyed as a result of battle anymore. Incase you were wondering." He was being cocky again, flipping through the two cards in his hand."

"I wasn't but thanks for your concern." I said sarcastically. Masked Dragon wasn't strong enough to do anything. "I'll set a card and end my turn."

Critically the boy examined his hand. At the same time Cari examined the field. To her the field was everything; right now it told her that he couldn't do much damage to her. Unless he had some monster strong enough to defeat King Dragun, she was safe. He could only do what little damage could be squeezed past Masked Dragon.

It didn't look like that was going to stop him from trying though. "I'll play Fuhma Shuriken. This equip spell increases the attack of a Ninja by 700 points and will deal the same in direct damage when it goes to the graveyard and I attach it to Ninja Grandmaster Sasuke (2500/1000)."

I had one chance here. If I could trick him… "As if I couldn't guess that; and I bet I can guess your next move too. You're going to attack King Dragun."

"You bet I am, and you can't stop me. I summon Lady Ninja Yae (1100/200) and use her ability to send your set card back to your hand by discarding Roc from the Valley of Haze from my hand. His own effect returns him to my deck when sent from my hand to the graveyard."

The lady ninja threw a knife at my set card, landing directly under it. I flipped it up. "I'll activate my second Jar of Greed, allowing me to draw one card."

I looked at the card I had drawn. It wouldn't be of much use. Not in this situation. Then I reconsidered. This card might just save me. It wasn't the way I'd usually play it, but it would work. To tell the truth, it would feel like using a word processor to write a program, but if it would win me the duel I wasn't going to complain.

In the mean time I had an attack to survive. It wouldn't be too hard.

The boy that was my opponent over estimated his influence, his power. He made the mistake of thinking that if he destroyed my King Dragun he would win. As far as he knew it was my most powerful monster. If he had been dueling just about any other girl he would have been right.

But my friends and I were different. It wasn't just because of our looks. It was because whatever we did, we did with a will. When I heard about what has historically been called 'the silent majority' I was angry. How could so many people stay silent as if they had no opinions at all? Mary vehemently opposed this. She said that if everyone went about with an argument and their own way of doing things nothing would ever get done. The important thing was that she was vehement about it. Though she defended it, she wasn't a part of the silent majority.

Anna had stepped in with a dissenting opinion saying that only those with opinions worth listening to should speak out. She's like that; give her an ideal, any ideal, and she will turn it inside out. It was close to Mary's opinion except that Anna believed that everyone with an opinion that was worth considering should be heard.

"That will still be enough people to create a fairly large and many sided disagreement." Mel had said.

"More likely there will be none at all." Anna retorted.

Tim looked on. Among all of us he alone had remained silent until now. "We can hope that there will be one or two to choose from. Still, none is better than a crowd for if there are none there is nothing to be done or argued about."

This had been received by general muttering, but now that everyone had spoken Rachel had returned the focus of the class to history.

My opponent inconsiderately chose that moment to attack. "Ninja Grandmaster Sasuke, demolish King Dragun!" Which the rubber boned wonder proceeded to do with great speed and efficiency. I was unmoved.

Cari: 3900

Boy: 3700

"I end my turn." I interpreted that as 'why can't my ninja have enough attack points to take down Masked Dragon?' That would be one of the many answers to why I use dragons rather than ninjas. First of all I had hardly seen the ninja cards before today and secondly because I like dragons. But even if those two hadn't been reasonable, this situation would clinch it.

"To start the turn off I will play the spell card Last Will. Now when one of my monsters is destroyed this turn I may special summon a monster with 1500 or fewer attack points. Unfortunately I may only do this once. Regardless, Masked Dragon, attack Ninja Grandmaster Sasuke."

Somewhere deep down this was setting off alarm bells in my head. This was madness, and completely unconventional. But it would work. At least I was fairly sure it would work. And that's what mattered.

Masked Dragon let loose its flame and the attack was dodged, but a knife came flying through the smoke, shattering my dragon. I took two identical monsters from my deck and placed them on the plastic surface of the duel disk. "I summon one Divine Dragon- Excelion (1500/900) by Masked Dragon's effect and another by Last Will, both in attack mode. I end my turn there." No need to make him suspicious.

Only after I had finished my turn did I realize just how stupid I had been. How could he not be suspicious when I hadn't attacked Lady Ninja Yae? I'd just have to hope he couldn't find a way to stop me. That and hope that I could actually pull it off.

My opponent sensed that something was odd. It was time for a cover-up. I opened my eyes wide and slapped myself upside the head. "Stupid, stupid, stupid! How could I have been so dumb?"

Then I looked up as if seeing my opponent for the first time and shut up. The ruse had worked. He thought that I had just made a mistake. And maybe I had; at least it was on purpose.

He laughed. "Foolish child. You never had a chance of defeating me. I'll set a card and have Ninja Grandmaster Sasuke attack one of your Divine Dragons."

Cari: 2900

Boy: 3700

"I end my turn."

My heart had begun to beat faster, my entire body screaming in apprehension and fear. Screaming 'Now! Now! Now! Do it now!' It wasn't like I had any other choice.

"To start the turn off, I play Stamping Destruction, destroying your Ninjitsu Art of Decoy; you lose 500 life points."

Cari: 2900

Boy: 3200

"Now I will tribute the Divine Dragon – Excelion on the field for the one I've been keeping in my hand." At last, a familiar play. This was how things were supposed to work. "Through its ability Divine Dragon – Excelion gets any of three abilities for each copy of it in the graveyard. Right now I have two so I will increase its attack by 1000 points (2500/900) and give it the ability to inflict direct damage equal to the attack points of the monster it destroys. And right now I'm going to attack the Lady Ninja Yae which you thoughtlessly left in attack mode."

He grinned broadly. "Not as thoughtlessly as you might think. I activate Ninjitsu Art of Transformation on Lady Ninja Yae transforming her into Roc from the Valley of Haze (2400/1400)."

Now I was the one smirking. This was clearly a favorite move of his. "I'm sorry to disappoint you, but I'm still going to attack. You might notice; my monster is stronger. Divine Dragon – Excelion, will decimate it." To tell the truth I felt a bit better about it now; I didn't like attacking a monster that reminded me of Mel so strongly.

Cari: 2900

Boy: 700

"Now I end my turn. See if you can defeat my noble dragon."

"Ninja Grandmaster Sasuke, attack her Divine Dragon – Excelion!"

The monsters were of equal strength; both were destroyed. For a moment I thought that I was wrong and that he had a chance after all. Then a spray of light in the form of a dragon appeared in the middle of the field and swooped low over him; when it had disappeared there was nothing left. I couldn't have gone anywhere, I knew that. I could only assume that the light had destroyed him somehow. I wasn't anxious to find out for myself.

Cari: 2200

Boy: 0

My opponent had done something very brave and very stupid. He saw a potential opening and took it without thinking what it might mean. It was what I might have done. I tried not to think about it as the shadows lightened. They didn't disappear but they were more spread out. Also they were rather deeper on my left than to the right. I chose to walk to the right. I won't say that I was afraid of the dark, but that didn't mean I had to like being among those writhing shadows.

As I walked through the darkness I felt a wet spot growing on my shirt. A shard of the shuriken that his ninja had used was stuck there in my flesh. It hadn't gone deep and bled only lightly. I pulled it out remembering now that it must have shattered and hit me to deal the requisite 700 direct damage.

Soon I saw another figure in the half light. It looked short and broad. I couldn't remember if any of the other boys had looked like that, but I doubted the form was human so I approached with caution.

When I got close enough and saw it waving feebly I realized that it was Tim. Together we decided that the best thing to do would be to find our friends. They were somewhere in the shadows, dueling just as we had. If they hadn't already lost… that didn't bare thinking about. I pushed his wheelchair off into the shadows.


	4. Storybook Beginning

Shadows of the Small Chapter 4

"The problem with brilliant plans: not so brilliant people." - Scott Westerfeld, Midnighters Vol. 3 Blue Noon 

"It was way cool, being the one who did the math."- Scott Westerfeld, Midnighters Vol. 3 Blue Noon 

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Anna

I was afraid. My books had come to life. This wasn't the sort of thing that was supposed to happen to real people. This was the sort of thing that was supposed to happen to some character in a fantasy novel, sending them off on a mysterious quest to save the world. My books had come to life.

Of course that was nonsense. This was very real; too real. Shadows surrounded her, obscuring her friends from view. The only person she could see was the person who was to be her opponent.

This darkness wasn't properly described as shadow either. As far as I was concerned, shadow was the absence of light. This wasn't an absence of light, it was the opposite. I would have thought it was anti-matter except that I hadn't exploded. Then again, maybe it was. I wouldn't know if there was some way for anti-matter to co-exist safely with matter. Numbers and science don't work for me. If you want to know about them, ask Cari or Tim.

There I went, off on a tangent again. My thoughts were brought to bear by my opponent. "Are we going to duel or not? I'm letting you go first."

I'd already put on the plastic dual disk. It didn't fit. These things were one size fits all: all except me. My arm was so skinny that it kept slipping off. It was a good thing that I wore long sleeves; I rolled my sleeve up to almost my elbow and stuck the duel disk up there. It held; barely.

I slipped my deck into the disk and drew six cards. At least my deck fit. In that at least it would be easy to design it to work. Then I thought about the time that the six of us, because Leonard was still alive then, had divided in halves and combined our decks together. That day was exquisite and entertaining.

And if I ever wanted to have another day like that I would have to win this duel. Something bad was bound to happen if I lost though I had not the slightest idea what.

Boy: 8000

Anna: 8000

"I'll start off our duel by summoning this monster in attack mode; Poison Draw Frog (100/100). I will set two cards behind it and pass the turn to you."

He laughed. "What are you doing summoning a monster like that in attack mode?"

I sneered. "What business do you have dueling if you can't predict my strategy?"

"I can predict your strategy, and I can predict who is going to win this duel. Me; you don't have a chance."

"If you're so sure about that, take your turn."

He slapped a monster onto the field. "Fine, I summon Mad Sword Beast (1400/1200) and attack your frog."

I looked down at my face down cards in mock thoughtfulness as the monster charged at me. "Ooh, too many options. How about this; activate Spiritual Water Art – Aoi!"

A girl appeared on the field. I fancied that I might look like her if I grew my hair long. Of course I doubted that I would ever grow my hair that long. It would be an infernal pain to take care of. And the odds of my smiling like that were one in a million.

"This card allows me to tribute one water monster on my field." As soon as my frog disappeared the dinosaur turned and tramped back to its home side of the field. "And I get to look at your hand and choose one card to discard."

Huge, presumably holographic representations of the cards appeared in front of me. Dark Driceratops, Stop Attack, Spear Dragon, Shift, and Airknight Parshath were all present. I must say that I didn't particularly like my choices.

"Discard Airknight Parshath. I'm not in the mood to kill fairies."

One of the disadvantages of being so thin is that it is hard to look threatening. I'd learned to let my words do the work for me.

He discarded the card. "Now that you've finished-"

I grinned as maliciously as I knew how. "Oh, but I'm not. Poison Draw Frog allows me to draw a card when it is face up and sent to the graveyard." I drew. "Now I'm done."

The impatient boy rolled his eyes. "Finally! Mad Sword Beast will now attack directly."

I laughed out loud. "I chain with Magic Cylinder!" I did my best to turn the laugh into a guffaw. I can't say that I accomplished the transformation.

Boy: 6600

Anna: 8000He scowled at me and I did my best to suppress a laugh. What can I say; it is endlessly amusing to have someone who has just threatened your life to have such an inferior expression. Or maybe it was just hysteria that created such a hysterical irony. Psychology is for those who need an excuse for their insanity.

"I set a card. Take your move."

I knew that the face down card must be Shift. That meant that it was of no possible use to him at the moment. I drew again. My move was fairly obvious though I can't say I liked the prospect.

"I will set one monster and end my turn."

My opponent narrowed his eyes. It must have seemed too good to be true. This was going to hurt. "I sacrifice Mad Sword Beast for Dark Driceratops (2400/1500)." This guy was being a tad too cautious. He could have done more damage if he had summoned his Spear Dragon. Then again if he had done that Spear Dragon would have been an easy target. And even Mad Sword Beast wasn't al that strong.

In the meantime I did my best to stop from showing how afraid I was of his new dinosaur. It looked mighty real to me. A cry ran through the shadows around me. I immediately toughened up. One of my friends was in trouble.

My opponent looked suspiciously at my face down monster. "I'll attack your monster with Dark Driceratops."

A little slimy blob of life disappeared off the field. I winced as I took life point damage.

"You just destroyed T.A.D.P.O.L.E. (0/0). I now may add any other copies of it in my deck to my hand."

Boy: 6600

Anna: 5600

He was grinning. "I'll end my turn."

I had to admit that I didn't like how this duel was going. "I summon Mother Grizzly (1400/1100) in attack mode. I end my turn."

Right then I was hoping to make him play Stop Attack. That card could ruin me later on. It seemed that no one had told him his part. "I'll summon Spear Dragon (1900/0) and attack your Mother Grizzly with it."

Boy: 6600

Anna: 5100

Luckily he hadn't anticipated the entirety of my plans. Or maybe he had. It wouldn't have changed much. I fished a card out of my deck. "I will special summon another Poison Draw Frog (100/100) in attack mode using my monster's ability. Don't forget that your monster is turned to defense mode."

He snorted. He clearly had no idea how useful drawing more cards could be to me. "You foolish girl, your monster had only 100 attack points. You don't stand a chance."

I shrugged. "Go ahead and prove me wrong then."

"Very well, Dark Driceratops will attack your frog."

Boy: 6600

Anna: 2800

"I'll set a card and end my turn there."

I drew a card. Finally I saw a strategy coming through. Possibly, if I was lucky I might just have a chance at winning this. When he ended his turn all I was waiting for was to see what my next card would be. When I saw it I did my best to contain myself. It wasn't a guarantee of victory. No proper heroine would jump for joy at the slightest glimmer of hope.

"I summon Treeborn Frog (100/100) in attack mode and attack your Spear Dragon with it." This was one of my favorite things to do: destroying my opponents' large monsters with my miniscule ones.

"I'll set a card and end my turn."

I had no intention of giving him even a moment's peace. As soon as he drew I flipped up my face down card. "I activate my trap Spiritual Water Art – Aoi. You should be familiar with it by now. I sacrifice Treeborn Frog and get to look at your hand and discard one card."

The holographic representations appeared. He still had Stop Attack of course. Somewhere along the line he had acquired a second Spear Dragon. I knew what I had to do, no matter how much I didn't like the looks of Stop Attack. "Discard your Spear Dragon."

He said something under his breath. I can only assume that it was a curse, probably aimed at me and my incredible foresight.

He lost his head for a moment and shouted his next move. "Before I attack you I activate my face down Robbin' Goblin so that you'll lose a card from your hand. Then I attack directly."

Then again, he couldn't have been too upset because then he had told his dinosaur attack me directly. I felt pain as it bit into my shoulder and when its beak came away I was bleeding. Now that was a shock. I hadn't expected to be injured. In truth I nearly passed out at the sight of the blood. Or it felt like I would at any rate.

Instead I put up a show of defiance and glared at my opponent after I had discarded my second T.A.D.P.O.L.E. This disconcerted him. In his rather one dimensional world a direct attack for over two thousand damage isn't something that one springs back from and especially not when this is the second or third such hit.

Boy: 6600

Anna: 400

He tried to ignore that I wasn't acting overly perturbed. "Are you ready to give up now?"

I glared. "No chance in hell."

"That's a pity seeing as that's pretty close to where you're about to go."

Now I had no idea what that meant unless he was planning on killing me or letting his monster do it for him. I realized that was what it must be: a real monster. Now I didn't have the slightest idea how such a thing could exist or how it would come to be here, but that was the only explanation I could think of.

It looked to me as if my opponent had ended his turn so I drew. The time had come for me to fight back.

"You've been making fun of my monsters. Now it's time for you to see what they can really do. During my standby phase, Treeborn Frog (100/100) returns to the field if I have no spell or trap cards on the field." The winged frog appeared on the field in front of me.

My opponent scoffed. "No matter how many times it comes back all it can do is to detract 100 damage from what I do to your life points each time that I attack. A reoccurring small monster is still a small monster."

Now I smiled. This was the same mistake that my friends had stopped making years ago. Except for Cari who sometimes managed to get the jump on me by using a strategy similar to this person's when she used Dragon's Rage. On the other hand, I defeated her just as often as she did me.

"That's where you're wrong. I sacrifice Treeborn Frog for Des Frog (1900/0)." The winged frog was caught on a pink tongue extending from nowhere and disappeared. Then the owner of the tongue appeared. It was a frog about the same size as me. Then two more such frogs appeared on other side of it. My opponent looked on in shock. Evidently he hadn't been able to guess my strategy as soon as he had seen T.A.D.P.O.L.E. He must not have been as experienced a duelist as I had at first thought.

"How did you get two more? You're not allowed to summon that many monsters!" He calmed down slightly. "It doesn't matter. They're still weak."

I shook my head and reached for my next card. "That's where you're wrong. As for my extra monsters, Des Frog has an ability which allows me to special summon as many copies of it as I have of T.A.D.P.O.L.E. in my graveyard when it is tribute summoned."

"As I said; it doesn't matter. Your monsters are weak."

"Maybe so, but my monsters have power that you could never dream of. I play the spell card Des Croaking."

My frogs began to sing. It was an eerie sound from beyond the pale, and it had every intention of taking my opponent with it. When the croaks had stopped nothing remained on his side of the field.

His linear world was having problems with additional dimensions again. From the look on his face the thoughts going through his head read something like this: _"Weak monsters mean a bad duelist. Bad duelist vs. me means I get a victory. Weak monsters do not mean very powerful spell cards capable of wiping out everything on my side of the field."_

He swiftly gave voice to his confusion. "There isn't any card that can do that! Nothing wipes out the entire field."

The second best thing about piloting this deck is being able to seem a lot smarter than I actually am, which isn't to say that I'm not smart, but I'm not quite as smart as people think I am after I open up whole worlds of things that they never knew about. If I saw that sentence in a book I would label it a run-on and write to the publisher and the author. I keep a list of all the mistakes I find in books that are corrected in later editions. In any case, ignoring my tangent, I decided to rub salt in my opponent's ignorance.

"How wrong you are! There are several cards like Des Croaking and they all have specific activation requirements. Des Croaking requires that I have three copies of Des Frog on the field. One of the other cards like this is Ojama Delta Hurricane! It requires that all three Ojamas be on the field. There is also a card called-"

He waved me down. "Alright, alright, you don't have to list every damned card ever created." Perhaps waving wasn't a strong enough word. Gesticulated doesn't cover it down either. He used big movements like he was trying to show a plane where to land, quite funny really.

I chuckled. "All three of my Des Frog will attack now."

Boy: 900

Anna: 400

"I'll just end my turn by setting a card."

He drew a card and a grin crept slowly onto his face from wherever it had disappeared to. And it had brought friends. His hatred of me was practically tangible, and if I looked too closely at the shadows around me I could see leering faces. I did my best not to look. He slammed on card down onto the field and the card I had been avoiding for so long reared its ugly head; or shield as the case may be.

"I play Stop Attack on your middle Des Frog. With zero defense points, it's an easy target. Then I summon Mad Sword Beast (1400/1200). You're done for. Mad Sword Beast, attack her middle frog!"

I flipped up a card and the dinosaur disappeared. My opponent looked around frantically for it. He never saw it coming in from behind.

Boy: 0

Anna: 400

The shadows convened around him and he disappeared from view. The monsters dissipated into shadow. I looked down at the trap I had activated: Dimension Wall. That last turn had been too close for comfort. If I hadn't had Dimension Wall handy I'd have been done for. I walked over to see what had happened to my opponent but he wasn't there. _He must have run off; the coward. _

I didn't see anyone else but the shadows were thick enough that I couldn't see more than a few yards in front of me. I wandered off to try and find me friends. _The heroine always finds her friends in the end._

_When she doesn't they have been killed._

_Then they are to be avenged._


	5. Misplaced Villainy

Shadows of the Small

Chapter 5

"Rule One: Do not act incautiously when confronting a little bald wrinkly smiling man." Terry Pratchett, Thief of Time 

Author's Note: Sorry if this is late on account of my laptop having been stolen.

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Mel

I was scared out of my wits. I would have liked nothing so much as to run away and hide somewhere, turn up the volume on my CD player until I couldn't hear the shadows moving around me. But I didn't have my portable CD player.

As soon as the shadows had cut me off from my friends I began to run. I ran through the thickening shadows and the wisps of darkness seemed to grab at me to slow me down. I had a combination of the Jaws theme and Beethoven's 5th Symphony blazing a path through my head.

No matter where I ran, he was there. He would always be right in front of me when I stopped for breath.

I ran into a wall and screamed. Then I turned and saw him there waiting for me. I ran again. It seemed like hours later that I came to a stop. He appeared, panting, in front of me. I realize that it must have been mere minutes, but it felt like hours.

In any case, back to him. Just making to make sure, as if you hadn't noticed, I have some trouble focusing on one topic for too long. Ah yes, back to my opponent. He seemed to have all the operating features of your regular evil villain, but none of the pomp and circumstance. Anna would have been ashamed.

Then again, Anna would hit me over the head if she saw that I had said that because it implies that she likes classical villains. Ouch.

By the time I had brought my brain back to the here and now, we had both caught our breath. Well, he had caught his. Mine had lapped me awhile back so I was just going to wait for it to come past again before grabbing it.

Eventually he spoke.

"Have you realized the futility of escape yet?"

I felt an irrepressible urge to stick my tongue out. Instead of giving way or repressing it I decided to delay it until a point when it wouldn't make me look like a younger child than I was.

"No, just the limits of my endurance, so let's get this thing started." I started drawing cards. I had almost drawn my sixth when my opponent stopped me.

"I'm not letting you go first. I'm not going to mess this up."

Boy: 8000

Mel: 8000

He could have done an evil laugh after that, but completely missed the opportunity. Anna would have been ashamed.

"I'll set a card and a monster as my turn."

To my surprise the cards appeared face down in front of him. I assumed that there must have been some kind of projector hidden in all these shadows. Heck, wherever it was it was probably creating the shadows.

I didn't pause to think. "I summon Howling Insect (1200/1300) and attack your face down monster."

There was a splash of red and my opponent smiled. "You just destroyed Mystic Tomato (1400/1100). Its effect allows me to special summon a Dark monster with only 1500 or less attack, so I'll bring forth D.D. Scout Plane in attack mode (500/1200)."

I didn't know what he was doing, and I didn't particularly care either. "I'll set one card, and that will be it."

His intentions got no clearer as his turn progressed. "I'll set a monster and switch Sangan to defense mode. Then I will play the spell card Different Dimension Capsule. After this card has been on the field for two standby phases, I will be able to take a card from my deck and remove it from play. Two standby phases later I will be able to add it to my hand."

It looked like it would be a fairly boring defensive duel. Unless of course I did something to spice it up a little. "I think I need to spice things up a bit. So now I'll-"

My opponent was quick on the uptake. "No you won't. I activate Regulation of Tribe. This continuous trap card stops you from attacking with one type of monster as long as I tribute one monster on my side of the field at each of my standby phases."

Now I knew that I was in trouble. Every single one of the monsters in my deck was an insect. I didn't have much choice.

"I'll set one monster and end my turn. So, how's your day been?" I don't know why I said it. Somewhere in my vocal cords it had been lurking, just waiting to pop out at an inopportune moment. He stared at me.

"What did you say?" His tone of voice wasn't so much angry as inquisitive

"I asked how your day was, but never mind that. It was silly."

He looked like he wanted to say something else, but didn't. Instead he took his turn in stride. "I will sacrifice Sangan as the cost of Regulation of Tribe and by Sangan's effect I will take my second D.D. Scout Plane and add it to my hand. Now I'll set a monster and end my turn."

I drew. "To begin the turn I play Messenger of Peace. But it won't be staying her for long as I will send it and my face down Blast with Chain to the graveyard in order to pay the cost to special summon Anteatereatingant (2000/0)." A gargantuan ant appeared in front of me. It was well over twice my height.

"Allow me to explain the full extent of this monster's abilities. First its summoning conditions; it may only be special summoned by sending two spell or trap cards on my side of the field to the graveyard. Its second ability allows me to destroy one spell or trap on your side of the field if I give up my attack with Anteatereatingant. I'll do that now in order to destroy Regulation of Tribe." I could hear a jubilation playing in my head.

My opponent was unfazed by the destruction of his trap. "Is that all you're going to do?"

"Far from it; first I flip my face down Gokipon (800/800) up into attack mode. Then I will have Howling Insect attack your face down monster." It came face to hull with D.D. Scout Plane (500/1200).

He grinned across at me. "My defense is equal to your attack."

My internal orchestra started making sick duck noises. "I just have to end my turn then."

"Wonderful, then I can get started. Now I suppose I should remind you that it is the second standby phase for Different Dimension Capsule and that I have chosen a card from my deck and laid it aside. After that I will summon Bazoo the Soul Eater (1600/900).Then I will play Gift of the Martyr. This spell allows me to sacrifice one monster on the field and add its attack to another monster's for one turn. So I will tribute D.D. Scout Plane and add its attack to Bazoo's (2100/900)."

All of a sudden I didn't like how the field was looking. And it was about to get worse as my opponent cracked a smile. "Now I am going to use Bazoo the Soul Eater's special ability, to remove up to three monsters in my graveyard from play to increase his attack by three hundred for each one. Now I am going to remove Mystic Tomato and both of my D.D. Scout Planes from play to give Bazoo three thousand attack points."

I think I knew how Yugi felt whenever he was looking one of Kaiba's Blue Eyes White Dragons in the face. Only Yugi always managed to win anyhow. I wasn't so sure about myself. I braced myself for the attack and as I waited, two familiar shapes reappeared on the field.

"First you ought to know that my D.D. Scout Planes always come back to the field when they are removed from play, and I will summon them in defense mode. Now Bazoo, attack her Anteatereatingant." My monster was utterly decimated by the beam of power that issued from the mouth of that overgrown monkey.

Boy: 8000

Mel: 7000

"That will be all."

There wasn't much I could do so I began to set up defenses, trying to tone the duel down to a piano so that I could bring it back up to fortissimo later on my own terms. "I'll set one monster and switch all my monsters into defense mode, end turn."

There was no way my opponent was going to let me off the hook that easily. "First things first, I'll summon my third and final D.D. Scout Plane (500/1200). Then I will switch the other two into attack mode."

I looked face to point-of-hull with the ships. I blinked first and looked away. What can I say; I was being stared down by three ships that didn't actually have eyes. Then again it wasn't the first time I'd had that feeling. It happened all the time when I was facing an endless wave of Tim's Battleships. And nothing ever felt quite as good as crushing them one at a time.

My opponent couldn't have cared less. "I will now play Share the Pain which causes each of us to tribute a monster. I will tribute my newly summoned D.D. Scout Plane."

"I'll sacrifice Gokipon." It was an easy choice; not only was it weakest, but it had the least useful effect as well.

He shrugged. "I suppose I shouldn't have hoped for better. In any case, I will now use Bazoo's ability to remove that D.D. Scout Plane from play, which brings it to the field, and increasing its own attack by 300 (1900/900). Now ,Bazoo, attack Howling Insect."

The overgrown baboon let loose a burst of energy from its mouth that made me think of the world's biggest belch competition (which had been televised at some point previously). When the energy reached my insect, it burst into a cloud of bugs, each keening horribly; hence the monster's name sake.

The swarm of howling bugs soon cleared to reveal a swarm of a different kind; a Swarm of Scarabs (500/1000).

My opponent patiently raised an eyebrow and waited for me to explain.

"When Howling Insect is destroyed as a result of battle I may special summon an insect from my deck with 1500 or less attack, so I special summoned Swarm of Scarabs in defense mode, satisfied?"

He nodded. "Quite. Well then, I'll have one of my D.D. Scout Planes attack your face down monster… Wait, I won't risk it. I have a different way to do some damage to you this turn. I play the continuous spell card Ectoplasmer. Now at the end of each of our turns, we must sacrifice a monster from our side of the field and deal half of its attack points in direct damage to our opponent. And don't try to weasel out of it; its not optional."

"It was the farthest thing from my mind." I lied.

"Sure. In any case, I'll end my turn and sacrifice one of my D.D. Scout Planes." A ghostly effigy of the monster appeared and flew at me. It gave me the shivers, but there was no visible damage.

Boy: 8000

Mel: 6750

Well, it was my turn and I had some work to do. "First things first: I flip summon my face down Swarm of Locusts (1000/500). This monster has an ability that allows me to destroy one of your spell or trap cards when it is flip summoned, which I will do now. It also has a second ability that allows me to flip it back face down once per turn, which I won't be doing just yet."

The swarm flew over my opponent's field, and when they returned, Ectoplasmer was missing from it.

"Excellent," I said. "Now you should know that Swarm of Scarabs has two effects very similar to Swarm of Locusts'. First I will use the one that they have in common to flip Swarm of Scarabs face down. Then I will flip summon it to use its ability to destroy one monster on your side of the field. I choose Bazoo."

Hundreds of tiny scarab beetles crawled over Bazoo until it was no longer visible. The heap slowly sank to the ground as the monster was consumed.

I thought for a moment. It was a very short moment. "Next I will sacrifice Swarm of Scarabs for Saber Beetle (2400/600). This monster can do damage through defense, but that doesn't matter quite yet. But right now it's going to attack and destroy one of your D.D. Scout things which you so kindly left in attack mode."

Boy: 6100

Mel: 6750

"And then I will follow that up by attacking your last one with Swarm of Locusts."

Boy: 5600

Mel: 6750

"I'll end the turn by changing Swarm of Locusts to facedown defense with its effect and setting a card."

My opponent looked so full of himself that I wondered what I had done wrong. It soon became clear. "Well, I can't say I'm about to complain about this. During my standby phase, Different Dimension Capsule activates and gives me the card that I set aside. And I suppose that it wouldn't hurt to tell you what it is, so I'll summon it. Come to the field, Bazoo the Soul-Eater (1600/900)."

I felt my jaw drop. I hadn't considered the possibility of him getting another one so soon. This wasn't good. My opponent once again missed an evil laughter opportunity and went straight into his turn.

"I think I'll use its ability straight off the bat to remove all three D.D. Scout Plane's from play to increase its attack by a total of 900 (2500/900). And of course, all of my scout planes return to the field in attack mode (500/1200)." This was going to hurt.

"Next I will play another copy of Share the Pain. I'll sacrifice one of my D.D. Scout Planes."

Curse it; I was up against the wall. "I sacrifice my face down Swarm of Locusts."

"Well then I'll just have my Soul Eater deal with your Saber Beetle."

Boy: 5600

Mel 6650

"And then I'll attack you directly with both of my remaining D.D. Scout Planes."

Boy: 5600

Mel: 5650

"I'll end my turn."

Well, I was in a bad position. I couldn't see an easy way out. Oh well, when in doubt, defend. "I'll set a monster face down and end my turn."

My opponent was so sure of himself that the self assurance practically poured off him. "First I'll remove my D.D. Scout Plane, my original Bazoo, and Sangan from play to increase Bazoo's attack back up to 2500 points as well as bringing D.D. Scout Plane back to the field. Then I will play my second copy of Gift of the Martyr. This time I'll sacrifice a D.D. Scout Plane to increase the stats of another D.D. Scout Plane. And now the strengthened plane (1000/1200) will attack your face down card."

A many handed merchant was destroyed along with its wares. I scowled. "You just destroyed Magical Merchant (200/700). When it is flipped I get to pick up cards from my deck until I reach a spell or trap." I flipped up the top card of my deck; it was Pinch Hopper and got tossed in the graveyard. I picked up the next one; Pot of Avarice, and added it to my hand.

My opponent ignored my gains. "It doesn't matter what you got. I'm attacking directly with Bazoo and my last D.D. Scout Plane."

Boy: 5600

Mel: 2650

"To finish off my turn I'll play another Ectoplasmer and sacrifice my double strength D.D. Scout Plane."

Boy: 5600

Mel: 2150

I drew and was disappointed, but I wasn't finished quite yet. "I play Pot of Avarice. This spell card lets me draw two cards from my deck after I mix five monsters from my graveyard back into my deck. So I'll put Pinch Hopper, Howling Insect, both of my swarms, and Anteatereatingant back into my deck." I drew two cards. Finally something I could work with.

"Now, watch carefully. I special summon Doom Dozer (2800/2600) by removing Magical Merchant and Saber Beetle from play. Then I will attack your D.D. Scout Plane. Just so you know, when Doom Dozer does damage to you, you have to discard the top card of your deck."

Boy: 3300

Mel: 2150

I was lucky; the top card of his deck was none other than his third Bazoo the Soul Eater.

He looked in disbelief at the card he had just discarded. "You just got lucky, but I'm still going to win this."

I looked at him curiously. "I don't see why it matters. Bazoo is no longer a threat. If it was a threat, I would have attacked it instead of one of your D.D. Scout Planes."

He finally adopted the manic smile that he should have been wearing from the beginning. "Oh, you'll see how little of a threat Bazoo is. Just end your turn."

"Very well, I end."

He laughed insanely (though it wasn't quite the hearty maniacal laugh that one has come to expect from a villain as it was far too breathy and desparate). "You fool! You need to sacrifice a monster to Ectoplasmer and you only have one. Now, sacrifice it so that I can defeat you."

I looked across at him. "I know that, which is why I activate this: Pole Position. It makes the strongest monster on the field immune to spell cards. That means Doom Dozer is un-affected by Ectoplasmer and is not sacrificed by its effect."

He gawked and didn't seem to quite recover from the shock all through is turn, which didn't take very long. "I'll activate Bazoo's effect to remove all three D.D. Scout Planes from play and bring them back in defense mode to increase its attack (2500/900). I'll leave it at that and sacrifice one of the planes to Ectoplasmer."

Boy: 3300

Mel: 1900

Things looked like they were going to slow down. Oh well, I could pick up the tempo later. "I'll set a card and have Doom Dozer attack a D.D. Scout Plane before ending my turn."

He looked at his next card and cracked up. I swear, I've been known to get a tad excited near the end of a duel, but this was crazy. He was laughing like some crazed axe murderer who was about to escape the police by killing each and every one of them just before he was placed on the electric chair.

I'll admit it; I've seen too many horror movies. Still, as he made his move, he looked like he had just gone way over the deep end. "I can't lose! You will be destroyed soon as I play Gift of the Martyr one final time, sacrificing my final D.D. Scout Plane to increase Bazoo's attack (2100/900). Then I will remove all three D.D. Scout Planes from play, increasing Bazoo's attack to astronomical levels (3000/900)!"

I didn't want to pop his bubble yet by reminding him how he had already done this once already.

"I will return all of my Scout Planes to the field in attack mode. Now, Bazoo the Soul Eater, destroy her monster."

"Sorry sucker, I activate Blast with Chain. This trap equips to my monster increasing its attack by 500 (3300/2600)."

Bazoo let loose its 'belch from beyond' and Doom Dozer opened up that huge maw it had. It was like French kissing from hell. The beam of energy was swallowed, soon followed by the world's hairiest monkey.

Boy: 3000

Mel: 1900

He was hysterical with shock. "This, this isn't happening, I'm going to win, I need to win, I don't want to die, I can't!" Now, I didn't see where all the death was going to come from, this was just a duel after all. Then I felt my throat and the marks that had been left when I was savaged by Sangan. Maybe it wasn't just a game.

But if it was between him and me, I was going to win. I didn't wait for him to end his turn; he was never going to get around to it. In any case, some other force seemed to have decided for him. One of his D.D. Scout Planes had been sacrificed for Ectoplasmer.

Boy: 3000

Mel: 1650

"I summon Swarm of Scarabs (500/1000) to the field and have Doom Dozer attack a D.D. Scout Plane." It was strangely therapeutic to see those little recurring orbs of annoyance destroyed each time.

Boy: 200

Mel: 1650

My opponent's eyes had gone wide with disbelief. It reminded me that he couldn't have been too much older than me; two or three years at most. I wasn't about to cut him any slack.

"The time has come for me to be grateful for your spell card. I sacrifice Swarm of Scarabs to Ectoplasmer at the end of my turn."

Boy: 0

Mel: 1650

Finally I got to stick my tongue out at my defeated opponent as the spirit of my swarm overran his body.

I wandered around for awhile, lost. I wouldn't have been shocked to find out I that had started to cry. In any case, I had sat down in the empty space. Then something hard hit my leg and I heard someone curse as they tripped over me.

"Hellfires!"

I looked up. "Anna!"

"The one and only." She came closer so I could see her and I stood up.

"So, what do we do now?" I was clueless, as usual. She was the smart one after all.

"Find the others. And then we need to find the door. We should also turn off this smog somehow. I don't want to try and walk up the stairs or along the catwalk when I can't see a yard in front of me."

I could see the logic.

"Let's find the others."

"What else were you planning on doing?" Anna had affected an irritated tone of voice that suggested that no one nearby was as smart as her.

At least something was back to normal.


	6. It's Always the Quiet Ones

Shadows of the Small Chapter 6

"_Now listen. I ask the questions, not you. You're just here, _and the Voice actually chuckled, _for the ride. Fore the incredible, indescribable, Maximum Ride._"

"_Max – you have a bigger mission than finding the flock's parents. Focus on helping the whole world, not just your friends… **You know, Voice, **_I thought finally, **_my friends _are _my world._**" – James Patterson, Maximum Ride, the Angel Experiment 

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Mary

I blinked slowly at the young man who I took to be my opponent. "Why are you doing this?" I said.

My theory is that everyone has a reason for what they do. Nothing would make sense otherwise. Anna is always trying to shoot this theory down. She claims that most things humans do are done for either no logical reason, or because of animalistic instinct.

"Like using the bathroom?" I had asked.

"No, the use of such facilities is illogical when the substances produced may be effectively re-used in the form of fertilizer rather than ultimately contaminating a water supply and wasting a necessary and valuable resource." Yup, that's Anna for you. She is always speaking with the big words just to confuse everyone.

Now my opponent wasn't Anna, but he was similar when it came to giving empty answers. "I must."

Alright, maybe his answer wasn't that similar.

Something told me that he would probably be the tall, dark, and silent type in the normal world. But this clearly didn't qualify as the normal world. It was more like a, nightmare scenario. Nightmares make me nervous.

"So… you want to duel me, right?"

I received a nod of the head.

"Well then, let's get started. You may take the first turn." I'd been raised generous. I just hoped I'd be able to live generous too.

Mary: 8000

Boy: 8000

His hand moved to his deck through the shadow.

"Set card. Set monster. End."

This wasn't going to be difficult. I'd seen that type of play hundreds of times and I knew exactly how to deal with it. The card I drew for the turn gave me what I needed.

"I summon Vampire Orchis (1700/1000). I am now allowed to special summon one Des Dendle (300/2000)."

My opponent was unfazed. Then again I wasn't sure if a man-eating plant would faze him. Not even if it was right next to him. I shuddered at the thought.

"Des Dendle is a union monster, which means that I'm allowed to equip it to Vampire Orchis, which I will now do. Then Vampire Orchis will attack your face down monster."

I was right; a man-eating plant didn't faze him. He had insurance.

"You attacked Soul Tiger (0/2100). I activate Destruction Punch. As your monster has lower attack than my monster does defense, it is destroyed."

I watched as both of the plants were devoured by the un-dead tiger.

Mary: 7600

Boy: 8000

I blinked. "That might cause some problems." Her opponent stubbornly remained stoic and silent. "I'll set a card face down and pass to you."

"I summon Spirit Reaper (300/200). Spirit Reaper attacks directly. When Spirit Reaper inflicts damage you must discard a card from your hand."

Mary: 7300

Boy: 8000

The reaper swept its scythe right along in front of me and cutting at least half an inch off my hair. It only just scraped my skin.

I was forced to discard Koitsu (200/100), not much of a loss. Aitsu was nowhere in sight.

Trying to get the upper hand, I tried to discern my opponent's strategy. So far it seemed as if he was either using a deck based around defensive monsters and monsters that can stick around for along time, or a haunted theme. This didn't get me anywhere, but I had to try. _"If you know your opponent's deck, you know what he or she is trying to do. If you know what your opponent is trying to do, you can stop them." _Leonard had once told me. The best duelist of the six of us, I had always taken his advice to heart.

I heard a scream and was brought back to reality with a shock and felt blood on my shoulder. I turned to look at it. There wasn't much of it; the wound was nothing to worry about. I wouldn't be wearing this shirt again.

One of my friends had been hurt. That made me angry. My opponent saw the look in my eye and signaled that ended his turn.

"I play the spell Frontline Base. The power of this spell allows me to special summon one Union monster with four or fewer stars. Come out Zombie Tiger (1400/1600)! Now, to put icing on the cake I summon Dark Blade (1800/1500). Both will attack your Spirit Reaper."

My monsters must have sensed some of my anger, for they leapt across the field one after the next with greater speed and ferocity than I had ever seen them do so before.

Mary: 7300

Boy: 5400

Maybe I could do this…

"You done?" And in comes my opponent.

"Yes." I tried to sound melancholy, but in truth I was excited. I was in the lead!

"I sacrifice Soul Tiger for a face down monster and switch Spirit Reaper into defense mode. Then I play Continuous Destruction Punch. End."

Though I wasn't familiar with it, I assumed Continuous Destruction Punch did the same thing as Destruction Punch only continuously. _"Well what else would it do? This isn't difficult." Anna would say. _That girl is too smart for her own good.

Problem was I had no way to get around it. I could assume that his face down monster had a good deal of defense. It might have a relatively low amount and a devastating effect. Or it might just have an obscene defense score up around 3000.

I tried to do what I knew Tim or Cari would do; calculate odds. Three monsters in my deck would allow me to make a successful union, and I ran two of two of them and one of the other. That gave me a five out of however many cards were left in my deck chance. I couldn't remember if I had actually gotten around to making sure the deck was 40 cards before coming. At best that gave me what, not quite a one in six chance?

_"When the odds don't fit the needs, change the odds." _Mel had said that once when she was having trouble with math. And I thought I had just the way to fulfill that idiom.

I drew. Just as predicted, the odds were against me. Combination Attack would be of no use at this point. "I activate Good Goblin Housekeeping. I draw one card, and then I must send one card to the bottom of my deck." I'd gotten lucky. But was I lucky enough? I put Combination Attack on the bottom of my deck.

"I play Upstart Goblin. You gain 1000 life points, but I draw a card."

Mary: 7300

Boy: 6400

It was just about time. "I summon Pitch-Black Dragon (900/600). This monster is able to union with Dark Blade giving it the ability to hurt you despite any defense position monsters. Oh, and it gives my monster a little boost." It was the kind of thing that would make Anna laugh. An hour later it would have me wondering who was out there paying too much attention to my words.

Dark Blade appeared to be having some trouble mounting the dragon. It was sort of pathetic. It would try to climb up, but the scales were too slippery. Eventually the dragon stuck out its tail which the warrior promptly sat on. The tail was like a miniature elevator but without the safety restrictions. But having received its 'boost' the warrior mounted the dragon (2200/1900).

"Now my Dark Blade will attack Spirit Reaper." To my shame I took great pleasure in seeing my opponent wince as he took damage.

Mary: 7300

Boy: 4400

I ended my turn there, pleased with what I had done. My opponent frowned.

"I set one card face down and end my turn."

I drew nothing of use. Again. "I'll have Dark Blade attack Spirit Reaper again."

My opponent blinked and a card flipped up. "Activate Shift. Redirect attack to face down monster."

My monster turned mid-flight and crashed into a wall of ice. The ice destroyed them completely and Neo Aqua Madoor (1200/3000) was left behind.

Mary: 6500

Boy: 4400

I grimaced. "I'll set a card and end my turn."

My opponent's strategy was unfolding slowly like a rose, one card at a time, except I like roses.

"I play the equip card Raregold Armor and attach it to Neo Aqua Madoor. Now you may only attack Neo Aqua Madoor. My other monsters are safe. Summon Nightmare Horse (500/400). This monster may attack directly. It attacks."

Mary: 6000

Boy: 4400

"End turn."

This rose had thorns.

Unfortunately I had no way of destroying his plan. That would be a problem. So for now I'd just have to ignore it.

"I'll pass."

I was almost used to my opponent's not needing to look at his cards, but not quite. "I play Fusion Sage, adding Polymerization to my hand. I now play Polymerization to fuse Spirit Reaper and Nightmare Horse creating Reaper on the Nightmare (900/600) in attack mode."

My mind raced to think of the monster's ability. Then I remembered; a combination of its components. It was probably the only fusion monster I could see the logic behind. Even its stats were just those of its two parts added together. This monster made sense and I tried to prepare myself for what I knew was about to come.

"Reaper on the Nightmare attacks directly. You discard a card."

Mary: 5100

Boy: 4400

Soitsu was sent to the graveyard. Well at least it wasn't like it had been doing me any good. Those little airplane riding fairies were going to be filling up the graveyard at this rate.

"End."

So far this duel had been more or less one sided. It was just the side that switched. I had every intention of changing that.

"I summon Kiryu (2000/1500) by sacrificing Zombie Tiger. Now I will have Dark Blade dismount Pitch-Black Dragon and get on Kiryu for a stat increase (2700/2400)." Normally I would have made as many attacks with my newly strengthened monster as possible and waited to use Kiryu's ability until it would be the finishing blow, but in this situation I wasn't left with much of a choice.

"I sacrifice Kiryu in order to allow Dark Blade to attack directly this turn. Now I will activate my trap card, Formation Union in order to re-equip Dark Blade with Pitch-Black Dragon to maximize the opportunity (2200/1900). Now, Dark Blade will attack your life points directly."

Mary: 5100

Boy: 2200

I had to look away as my monster flew in and took a swipe at my opponent's head. I didn't expect it to leave a mark. All of a sudden this wasn't a game anymore. True, each direct attack from his monsters had hurt. But that was to be expected. But they hadn't left a mark like that. One of his eyes was already starting to swell. Somehow he had avoided being cut on what I now realized was a very real sword.

"I'll end."

A card floated up off of my opponent's deck and into his hand. I was beyond surprise. "I set a card. Reaper on the Nightmare attacks directly. You will lose."

Mary: 4200

Boy: 2200

There was no card to be discarded this time and I wasn't happy about it. I'd have to ask one of the 'parental units' to research the phenomena 'better to have had and lost than to not have.'

Then I drew and was rewarded with some slight relief. "I play Pot of Avarice. I will mix Soitsu, Kiryu, Zombie Tiger, Des Dendle, and Vampire Orchis back into my deck and draw two cards." Koitsu was the absolute last card I wanted to be drawing at this point. It was going to stay safe in the graveyard. "I will set a monster and my other card. Make your move."

"Summon Nightmare Horse (500/400). Attack directly with Nightmare Horse and Reaper on the Nightmare."

Mary: 2800

Boy: 2200

"End."

At this rate I would only survive two more turns. Not something I wanted to know. Again my draw was lackluster.

"I'll have to set a card and end my turn."

"You cannot win by setting cards alone. I play Bait Doll to force the activation of your newest face down card."

"And it activates; Good Goblin Housekeeping. I already have one in the graveyard so I draw two cards before sending one to the bottom of my deck." None of this mattered. The card I kept would be discarded along with the one I sent to the bottom of my deck. I put Decayed Commander on the bottom of my deck.

"Bait Doll is shuffled into my deck. I attack directly with both monsters. You discard."

Mary: 1400

Boy: 2200

I discarded Upstart Goblin without complaint. I was depending on this next draw. It would need to be something spectacular.

In the dictionary when they define 'spectacular' they have a picture of a (100/100) fairy on an airplane.

"I sacrifice my face down Des Dendle for Aitsu (100/100). I will also separate Pitch-Black Dragon and Dark Blade (1800/1500). Now I will activate my trap, Roll Out! This allows me to take a union monster from my graveyard and attach it to an applicable monster. Say hello to Koitsu (200/100)! A blue featureless man on a paper airplane appeared briefly before joining Aitsu on its plane. The airplane which the blue man had ridden on disappeared.

My finest union had been made. "Aitsu and Koitsu get along well, so Aitsu gets a huge bonus (3100/3100) and does damage through defense. Now he'll attack Neo Aqua Madoor. He's had more than enough time to chill in that armor of his, don't you think?"

The attack was impressive only in its inadequateness. The red and the blue man each took a side and appeared to be whispering things in the ears of the wizard. What those things were I didn't know, but Neo Aqua Madoor fell to his knees and was unceremoniously picked up and gently tossed beyond my range of sight through the shadows.

Mary: 1400

Boy: 2100

"Next Pitch-Black Dragon will attack Nightmare Horse."

Mary: 1400

Boy: 1700

"And Dark Blade will attack the Reaper." Reaper on the Nightmare didn't seem to know or care that it was attacked. The sword cut through the Nightmare without leaving a mark and the reaper's scant flesh was left open and scarred yet un-inhibiting.

Mary: 1400

Boy: 800

I ended my turn quite cheerfully. There was no way that he was going to come back from that assault.

His move didn't take long. "Set one card. Attack directly with Reaper on the Nightmare."

Mary: 500

Boy: 800

As I drew my card for the turn I glanced at his field. It didn't look threatening, true, but…

If my attack was stopped I'd lose.

Unfortunately I, unlike my opponent, had to look at the card I drew eventually.

"I play Mystical Space Typhoon on the card you just set and activate Dust Tornado to destroy that one." I said, pointing.

I watched as the traps were destroyed. Bottomless Trap Hole I didn't care about one way or the other. The Blast Held by a Tribute he had just set would have killed me if I'd attacked with Aitsu again.

This was exactly what I'd been planning on doing.

"Aitsu, finish this. If possible do something showy instead of whispering in his ear."

My monsters answered my plea. My funky fairies looked like they were playing ring around the rosy except the circle kept moving faster and faster until it was just a purple blur. The spinning stopped and a large purple man stood there on the paper airplane. He posed and the airplane shot forward stopping just short of the reaper. With a dramatic soundless grunt (he still lacked a mouth) he leaned back and kicked the reaper and its mount back into their master.

Mary: 500

Boy: 0

The shadows imploded. The world spun. I sunk down to my knees and shut my eyes as my hair whipped around my face in the dark wind. I didn't open them until the wind had settled and someone tapped on my shoulder.

"You can open your eyes now. It's over."

I opened my eyes to see Cari. I stood up and hugged her half sobbing into her shoulder. "You're safe! Where's everybody else, are they-"

She struggled in my grip. "Can somebody get her off me?" She shouted.

I heard a voice from behind Cari. "It might be wise to let go, Mary. If it wasn't for the noise I'd think you're suffocating her." It was Tim of course.

I let go and looked around. Mel and Anna were halfway across the warehouse. As I looked around there were four plastic duel disks lined up, and one off nearer to Anna and Mel. There were shreds of cards everywhere. There was one whole card under the duel disk in front of me- Nightmare Horse. I pocketed it out of respect for the dead, because he was dead, right? I mean living people don't disappear into thin air. As a matter of fact neither do dead ones but still.

There were shouts from up on the catwalk. Evidently the door had just opened and the adults had been worried about us. _And with good reason. _

Anna led by her actions. She slid the duel disk off her skinny arm with ease and slid it behind a big storage container and took Mel's off before she realized what was going on. She gestured desperately at us and I followed suit and helped Tim with his. As I shunted it off to the side he whispered in my ear, "Look scared."

Well that wasn't going to be hard.


	7. Connection Part 1

Shadows of the Small

Chapter 7

"Thank goodness for Vimes. There was something endearing about his desperate, burning and above all mis-placed competence. If the poor man took any longer he'd have to start giving him hints."

"Well, I'll damn well make up something and start saying it a lot from now on."

-The Wonder of Terry Pratchett, _Feet of Clay _

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Tim

The human mind is a wonderful thing. If it sees something that it doesn't want to be there, it won't see it. This simple process allowed us to get out of the warehouse within a matter of minutes. The sudden power outage was blamed on a short circuit in the back-up generator and some incorrect wiring which allowed this to affect the electric powered automatic entryway to the warehouse proper.

"So sorry that you kids got locked in the warehouse, but we put the correct emergency procedures into action and everything worked exactly as planned."

_They have emergency procedures for a bunch of dark disappearing duelists summoning suffocating shadows? I'm impressed._

This same stroke of brilliance allowed the tour guides and the executive official who formally apologized before going back to his office as Vice-Assistant-Secretary of Filling In For People Who Have Meetings or whatever his title might have been to blame the pile of our opponents' duel disks in the middle of the warehouse on vandals. The same vandals were also blamed for our own, hastily hidden duel disks.

None of us had thought of hiding our opponents' disks. That fell under 'somebody else's job.' The human mind is a wonderful thing.

When alarms started going off we were quickly ushered out of the building. Evidently there had been some kind of delayed reaction of some sort which had caused the back-up generator to overheat and catch on fire or explode. It all depended on which frantic usher you listened to. The bureaucrats would have denied that the fire alarm was going off if they could. As it was they weren't going to have even heard the slightest rumor of the fire until they had a memo on their desks.

Fire trucks screamed down the road as Elli drove us home through the rain. What she didn't ask, we didn't tell her. Even Mel didn't speak a word about what had happened.

When we arrived home, each of us went about our usual routines. It took a full half hour for us to realize that we had been promised the chance to duel with the public image producer again. It was Mary who remembered.

"Hey, Elli?"

Our guardian turned from the papers she'd been looking through, taxes or some such thing. "Yes dear?"

"May we go use the duel station now? You did say we could."

"Of course you may. I know how much you children love dueling."

The six of us trooped outside. I had dispensed of the wheelchair for the moment, but Cari carried it. The rain had stopped but the normally difficult terrain would now be impossible due to mud.

Unfortunately our plans were cut short by the sight of a duel taking place. Our original plan would have guaranteed us a spot but we had waited to long. Some pair of duelists had already gotten out of school. There were only two spectators. It was hard to tell from a distance, but one duelist had an array of warriors on the field and the other seemed somewhat lacking on the monster side of things. We headed back inside.

Rachel had just arrived home and Elli was on her way out. We ran into her at the door. Cari, our normal spokesperson, was breathing hard from trying to run while carrying the wheelchair.

"We should have gone down earlier. Our spot's already been taken." Anna said, slumping into a chair and grabbing a book off the kitchen table. The TV was on along with the six o'clock news. The newscaster was about half way through the segment on court cases, disputes, and law suits of interest which meant that the national portion was done and that they were almost done with the international or overseas bit.

"Also of interest, Seto Kaiba, CEO of Kaiba Corp. and Duel Monsters mogul is threatening to file a law suit against Industrial Illusions due to their recent decision to release more copies of his signature card, the Blue Eyes White Dragon."

Anna looked up from her book, transfixed as the rest of us by the story.

"Industrial Illusions is also planning on filing a law suit against Kaiba for releasing privileged information. However, as the cat is out of the bag so to speak, they have issued a formal press release about the new release and have decided to release the card, along with several others, earlier than expected. You can get the full report on our website at www.-"

The news program was cut short by a badly timed advertisement.

"Are you scared of the darkness?"

The Dark Magician moved across the screen and froze in place.

"Well fear no more, and welcome the light!"

Blue Eyes White Dragon appeared and sent forth a burst of energy destroying Yugi's signature monster.

"New! The Blue Eyes White Dragon is available to the public! To be released in a few short weeks along with new card such as Burst Stream of Destruction, Kaibaman, Blue Eyes Sapphire, and more! Coming soon to a card shop near you."

Rachel started to cook dinner, but after a day of flipping burgers her heart wasn't in it. Mary was glad to take over. After a few more ads, the news came back on.

"And now we will turn to the court cases near you-" the voice briefly to a mechanical tone "West City" and switched back with a new reporter and the view of a courtroom. "Currently the Duel Monster's Champion for the whole of the West City area is standing trial under assault charges. His name is Lucien Morningstar and the court appears to be undecided. He is ably represented by Adolfus Beurreginsky who has put together an almost faultless case here today…"

We all zoned out after that.

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The next few days were measured only in news reports. The weather was awful and unchanging.

"_And this is the most rainfall we've had in the city on this date in a year ending in an even digit divisible by three this millennium!"_

"_Yes, but the millennium is still young."_

"_There was a major fire at a warehouse in downtown West City today. Officials say that it was caused by a malfunction in the localized power generator. The exact nature of the malfunction has yet to be ascertained"_

_-------------------------------------------------_

"_The police has asked the public to be on alert for several Missing Persons including Rodrigo Sanchez, Emily Peterson, Catherine Wesley..."_

"_And the King of Games has done it again, winning a tournament in Moscow. He has stated that he will be donating all the prize money to charity." _

"Yes, but will he donate it to a Russian charity or bring all that money back home to Japan?" I broke in.

"Does it really matter? It will be going to a good cause wherever he donates it." Mary was somewhat irritable. Rachel wasn't letting her cook saying, "Now I know how much you love cooking Mary, but this family needs to have the occasional regular meal." Mary could, of course, cook regular food with ease but preferred not to.

I then demonstrated my skewed (which is not to say that it was incorrect) view of global economics. "It does matter. The money was gathered from the profits garnered from the Russian people, so in order to continue a healthy monetary cycle it needs to go back to the Russian people so that it can be given to the companies in exchange for goods, and be given to the people in the form of wages."

My jaundiced viewpoint was not appreciated.

_"An airliner is currently circling over BWI Airport waiting for clearance to land. Due to a lack of maintenance and the recent rains the tarmac is not safe to land on."_

Mel cried out. "Oh those poor people!"

"I don't see the problem." Said Cari. "Its not like there aren't five other major airports in the immediate area."

I climbed into the argument. "Yes, but all of the passengers travel arrangements would have been made for BWI."

"Ever heard of a shuttle?" Said Anna, rolling her eyes. "They could be commandeered for use in 'emergency transport. It may not be an emergency, but try telling that to them." She nodded towards the TV or Mel, or possibly both.

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The phone rang at 5 A.M. The person on the early shift at Rachel's restaurant had just quit and they were willing to pay her triple to come in early until a replacement could be found. We all found out because she woke up the entire house with her cursing. Elli had to come out of her room to calm her down. Mary started making coffee as both she and the adults were caffeine addicts.

After coffee she quick fried some eggs and Rachel bolted them. By this time everyone but me was dressed and I was hobbling around in my pajamas. Rachel ran back up to her room to get her purse. As she came down the stairs, there were three knocks at the door. I was in the hall and couldn't see so well, as Elli answered the door, I recognized the boy.

His face was blackened with what looked like soot and there was a scratch across one cheek, but he was unmistakable. It was Lucien, the West City Duel Monster's Champion. I couldn't hear, but he whispered something and fell, panting to his knees.

Rachel had come up behind me in the hall and Elli looked to both of us. We all knew what had to be done.

"He can use Leonard's room."

Elli and Cari carried him into Leonard's ground floor room and Rachel dashed out the door.

I stayed out of the way of the entire process, making my way into the kitchen and pouring myself a bowl of cereal. Mary and Mel went into the bedroom to investigate our visitor.

Anna stayed in the kitchen eating her cereal with the obligatory book in front of her. She maneuvered chairs near me for support with the same natural ease as turning a page.

"What do you think of the new boy?" She didn't look up to speak.

I shrugged. "What am I supposed to think? He'll be interesting to duel, being the region champion and all."

She cast a disparaging glance at me before turning to her book. "That wasn't what I meant. We don't exactly look normal, least of all you. What will he think of that?"

"He's alright. I was out on the steps and saw him last Saturday. He saw me but he pretty much ignored me. Didn't stare and didn't avert his eyes. Just took me in stride as part of the scenery."

Her thin eyebrows furrowed, making them look like a few threads stitched through a pale tapestry. "Well I'm not sure I want to live with someone who treats me like a piece of furniture."

I laughed. "Well we'll just have to see about that, won't we?"

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Lucien

I had no idea where I was. I did an automatic wake-up check of my facilities. Two legs, two arms, one head, most of a brain, check. Familiar surroundings, not check. I could tell that without opening my eyes.

I considered the places I could be. "Aliya?" I ventured.

An unfamiliar sarcastic voice came from my side. "Who's that, your girlfriend? It's not me, regardless."

I opened my eyes and saw the red haired girl next to me. It was a good thing her hair was only light red instead of the deep crimson of my recent adversary's or I might just have fainted again.

"Will moaning in pain help?"

"No."

"I thought not. So, where am I?"

I tried to act calmer than I felt. I wasn't screaming so I felt I was doing fairly well. The tired blond woman from before walked in and immediately started fussing over the burns I hadn't realized I had. The red haired girl walked out of the room in disgust as a green haired one and a brunette walked in.

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Tim

Cari walked briskly into the kitchen and turned on the TV. Anna glowered up at her but Cari had been annoyed by all the attention Lucien was getting and ignored her. She started flipping channels.

"He's got some pretty bad burns. Any fire that could give him those is bound to be on the news."

Soon she was proved right. The local news channel had footage of the fire in its later stages, fire crews preventing it from spreading to the neighboring houses. According to the report no bodies had been found though according to reports all members of the family were inside at the time of the fire. In fact according to the phone calls the police department had made, a considerable amount of the extended family was supposed to have been there as well.

Elli had come back into the kitchen in time to see this part of the report. "Oh the poor baby, he doesn't have any family to go back to."

Cari turned her back on the rest of us. "We managed. Our extended families were alive, but they didn't even bother to identify us."

She hurried out of the kitchen, probably to the room she shared with Mary. The one thing Cari wouldn't do was cry

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Lucien

The woman, Elli, went out shopping for clothes for me. I just told her to get T-shirts and shorts. She bought T-Shirts, shorts, underwear, a pair of sneakers, a few collared shirts, pants, a watch, a raincoat, and enough socks for an army. I'd heard of generosity, but this seemed suspicious. When she saw the look on my face she explained.

"We're on the payroll of both the government and a private corporation. Technically the corporation only provides for our original charges, but they won't notice if we need extra clothes."

My brow furrowed. "A private corporation funds an orphanage?"

She shrugged and tucked back a misplaced strand of hair. "Well, the other children were orphaned in an industrial accident. The company their parents worked for pays all their expenses as they wanted to avoid any potential law suits."

My curiosity was piqued. "What company was this?"

"You know, I'm not entirely sure. It was some all-American toy making company I believe. Not long ago it was bought out by Industrial Illusions, so now the check comes from them."

I nodded. This was interesting. But just then I had other things to think about. "My school will…"

She nodded. "What school do you go to? I'll call."

I shook my head and sat up in the bed. "I have a better idea. I have… a friend I need to see."

She pushed me back down and put one of the shopping bags on my chest. As if that could hold me down. "You're not going anywhere until I've treated your burns. Don't worry, I'm certified."

This was going to be a long day.

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Tim

Mary, Mel, Anna, and I were all out on the front steps when Elli got back from buying new clothes for Lucien. She was clearly very excited about the prospect of a new child to take care of. Normally she would be teaching us at this time instead of looking after some other kid. Not long afterward Ray biked up. Mel sprang up to greet him.

"Hi Ray! Why aren't you in school?" Ray was in his sophomore year of high school at a private school out in the sub-urbs though he lived in on of the apartment complexes down town, on the other side of the park.

"Teacher work day. The teachers all need time to write exams and grade tests. Giving them a day with no classes is supposed to make them do higher quality work. I bet it actually lowers the grade point average because the teachers have time to make it harder." We all laughed and he set his bike against the wall. "So where's Elinor?" Ray always referred to us by our full names. We only accepted it because he did the same to Elli.

Anna closed her book. "She's in Leonard's room with the new boy."

Ray's eyebrows veritably levitated. "New boy? You mean a new orphan? What's his name?"

"Lucien." We chorused.

"Lucien? Lucien Morningstar, the region champion?" We nodded in unison. "He beat me in the tournament! I've been looking forwards to seeing him again. What happened?"

It was Mary's turn. "There was a terrible fire at his house, killing everyone but him."

Ray winced. "Poor kid… Anything I can do to help?"

Mary shrugged. "I dunno, ask Elli."

Ray raised an eyebrow at me as if it say, "What's up with them?" He walked inside and I followed.

Elli was just coming down the stairs carrying a fresh roll of gauze and looking distracted. "Oh, Ray. Anything I can do for you?"

He gave that jaunty grin of his. "I'm here to see what I can do for you. I'm the one trying to accumulate community service hours, Ellinor."

"You must have enough community service hours for half your school, Ray." She sighed. "But yes, there is something you can do. Have the kids told you about our guest?"

He nodded in assent and she continued.

"Well he's convinced that some lawyer friend of his would be willing to contact the school and settle anything that came up in the destruction of the house and his family, wills, insurance, etcetera. He wrote up a note for him. Could you take it down to his office? I'll have Lucien write down the address."

She bustled off without waiting for an answer. Momentarily she re-appeared bearing a folded scrap of paper with a downtown address scribbled on it with the name Adolfus Buerreginsky.

Ray took the paper and headed back outside. I turned to Elli. "How's he doing?"

"He'll be fine, there isn't anything that I can't treat. It's the strangest thing though. In addition to the burns he has some cuts that look like they were inflicted by some sort of long knife, bruises too. The boy practically was a bruise. I don't see how he could have gotten all of those in a fire."

That just reminded me of how sore I was from some of the direct attacks I'd taken in the warehouse. Then I had a thought. There were only a few ways he could have gotten those injuries. It could have been in a duel like the one we had all been forced into. Even worse he could have been one of the people who dueled us. If he was the one who made Mel scream…

No. I was jumping to conclusions. There were other ways he could have been injured. Maybe he was abused.

_But there was a fire. There was a fire after our duels._

The fire after our duels had been caused by the generator. He could have lit his own house on fire as an act of retaliation against whichever family member beat him.

I got the others and when Elli had finished with him we stormed the room.

I asked the question. "What really happened?"

He wearily opened one eye. "There was a fire, what does it look like?"

"According to some of your injuries it looks like you were in a fight." I took a wild stab. "It looks like you were in fight with an axe-wielding maniac."

He showed no sign of shock or recognition. "I wasn't. There was a fire. A week before that I was in a bit of a fight, blunt weapons only. Then again you probably know all about that from the news."

"Then how did you get those cuts?"

He blinked. "Probably something flew at me in the fire, I don't remember."

I thought he was lying. As I looked around I was fairly sure everyone else agreed with me. There was the possible exception of Mary, but she hated to think that anyone could do anything so wrong as to lie.

But he was covering himself pretty well and I didn't know what I could do to save the situation. Anna's diamond cut wit saved us. "How did the fire start?"

After a split second his brow furrowed. He was lying, I was sure of it. But he was a cursed good actor. "I think there was something wrong with the oven. I didn't turn it on, so I can't imagine what."

"So you were in the kitchen at the time of the fire, the oven exploded, and some of the shards cut you? That makes sense."

Lucien was clearly relieved and immediately took up the mantle of the scared and confused. "I'm not entirely sure, but that's probably what happened. I don't remember the oven actually exploding but that would explain how the flames came so fast as well as the rushing sound."

Anna jumped on the opportunity. "You're lying. The fire started on the 2nd floor." Maybe she was paying more attention to the news report than I thought. How did she do that with her nose in a book? "So tell us, what really happened."

He'd been caught and he knew it. "I told you what I know. I'm not entirely sure how the fire started."

_Can't he just give up?_

I gambled. "We do. And we know you do."

"Care to share?" He closed his yes in a relaxed retreat.

Cari's train of thought over took mine.

"A shadow duel."

His eyes flashed open and he leaned up out of bed and grabbed Cari's wrist.

"What do you know?"

She began to pinch his arm, hard (I know from experience), but he didn't seem to notice.

Finally I said. "Let go."

Startled, he did as I said and lay back in bed. "Tell me what you know."

I shook my head. "Only if you tell us what happened to you."

"Too many people are involved. I can't just go and say everything without so much as a by-your-leave. Plus, I don't know what you know and if it would be safe to tell you."

"Well this is silly." Mel broke in. "How about we have a duel. If you win, we tell you everything we know. If I win then you tell us what happened and we may very well tell you what we know."

"If you insist, Just remember that I am Region Champion so the odds are against you."

Anna took over. "What were you before you were Region Champion?"

"I was me."

"And is that supposed to be something special? You think you were fated to be Region Champion? Get over it. You're not invincible. You can be beaten at any time. Mel's got just as good a chance as you in this duel."

She walked out of the room and the rest of us followed and Mary wished Mel good luck. After a delay of a few minutes Lucien came out wearing a plain green t-shirt. Elli would have bought that.

Not long after he and Mel were set up at the Duel Station. Once when Lucien winced just before getting into the station, Mary had rushed over to see if he was alright. I was fairly sure she had also wished him good luck. Cari snorted and I choked back a laugh. When Mary turned, red faced, to glare at us, we were innocently looking in different directions.

The duel begun as both duelists inserted their decks. Mel's gem turned out an earthy brown and green with two curvy blue strips. Lucien's was black.

The spinner appeared and chose Mel to begin the duel.

Mel: 8000

Lucien: 8000

"I'll set a card to each area and end my turn." Her voice squeaked. I mentally hit myself. Why did she allow herself to be intimidated by this kid? _Because he's region champion. _

He wasn't intimidated at all. You'd think that a single rant by Anna would instill the fear of orphans in him. But no, he remained stoic. You'd think he owned the entire city by the way he stood there, denying emotion, denying need, denying loss.

I realized then what seemed so strange about the situation. Lucien had lost his entire family- to no apparent effect. The only time you would have known something had happened was when he had fallen on our doorstep.

Then I knew it was all a play. Lucien wore masks like we wore faces. His show of weakness at his first appearance was just as likely to be false as his current front.

Where under the masks was there a mask no more? Was their anything left under them all?

_Mel had better win this. It's the only way we'll ever know if Lucien is the victim- or the one responsible._


End file.
